Win the hanging rook on a8 (d8)
li-0FvU0naming tag (square·N)Opens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Hanging piece: your opponent left a piece undefended — take it.
Difficulty 2078 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
White to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A hanging piece is one that is attacked and not defended, or defended too few times. Count attackers against defenders on each enemy unit; where attackers win, take it — often with an in-between move or a check to gain the extra tempo.
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 h2, queen f2, rook d8, knight c3, pawn c2 g2 a3 b3 h3 f4.
Black: king g7, queen e7, rook e3, bishop a8, pawn b5 f5 a6 g6 f7 h7.
10 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 38.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 23 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on h2, the black king on g7.
It is White to move on move 38, with 38 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d, e — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
The White king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
38. Rxa8 Qc5 39. Nd1
Why it works
- Great move! rook to a8 keeps the pressure (+4.9).
- Well found: knight to d1 (+5.0).
- You win a piece — the bishop.
- If instead Qc5, then Nd1 and you win the bishop.
Move by move
- 38. Rxa8 — rook to a8 (capture)
- Qc5 — queen to c5
- 39. Nd1 — knight to d1
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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