Skewer: queen to e6
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The tactical motive
Skewer: a valuable piece is forced to move, exposing the one behind it.
Difficulty 2135 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
White to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A skewer is a pin reversed — the valuable piece stands in front and, when it moves, the piece behind falls. Line your rook, bishop or queen up against the king or queen and win whatever is hiding behind it.
General method: before you move, list the forcing candidates — every check, every capture, every direct threat — and calculate those first. The solution to a tactic is almost always among them.
Position on the board
White: king c1, queen e5, rook e1 h1, bishop b3, pawn a2 b2 g2 h2 c6.
Black: king g8, queen d8, rook f5 a8, bishop g4, pawn f4 d5 b6 a7 c7 g7.
10 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 22.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 1 points of material (27 against 28; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on c1, the black king on g8.
It is White to move on move 22, with 36 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: d, f.
The White king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
22. Qe6+ Kf8 23. h3 Rf6 24. Qxg4
Why it works
- Great move! queen to e6 keeps the pressure (+5.1).
- Well found: pawn to h3 (+5.1).
- Strong! queen to g4 is the sharp choice (+5.2).
- You win a piece — the bishop.
- If instead Kf8, then h3 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 22. Qe6+ — queen to e6 with check
- Kf8 — king to f8
- 23. h3 — pawn to h3
- Rf6 — rook to f6
- 24. Qxg4 — queen to g4 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Winning blow
Find the strike that wins material by force.
A winning blow is a forced material gain that does not fit a single textbook motif. The general tactical recipe applies: spot loose pieces, an awkwardly placed king, overloaded lines. Go through the forcing moves in order of violence — checks, captures, threats — because most combinations start with one of them. Do not judge by feel: calculate the concrete line until the outcome is beyond doubt.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 015
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