Win the hanging king on g7
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The tactical motive
Hanging piece: your opponent left a piece undefended — take it.
Difficulty 1873 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
Black 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 g1, queen d1, rook a1 f1, bishop c4 g7, pawn a2 b2 c2 f2 g2 h2.
Black: king g8, queen d8, rook a8 f8, bishop c8, knight e4, pawn c6 a7 c7 d7 f7 h7.
12 white and 12 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 12.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 31 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on g1, the black king on g8.
It is Black to move on move 12, with 25 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): e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: b, g.
White hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The Black king has 1 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
12... Kxg7 13. Qg4+ Ng5 14. f4 d5
Why it works
- Great move! king to g7 keeps the pressure (+2.8).
- Well found: knight to g5 (+2.8).
- Strong! pawn to d5 is the sharp choice (+2.7).
- You win a piece — the bishop.
- If instead Qg4+, then Ng5 and you win the bishop.
Move by move
- 12… Kxg7 — king to g7 (capture)
- 13. Qg4+ — queen to g4 with check
- Ng5 — knight to g5
- 14. f4 — pawn to f4
- d5 — pawn to d5
Types in this puzzle
Discovered attack
A piece steps aside and opens a second attack from the piece behind it.
A discovered attack works like a curtain: one piece steps off the line and unveils the long-range piece behind it. The beauty is that the moving piece can create a second threat of its own — two attacks in one move. Look for your stacked pairs: a bishop or rook behind a knight or pawn, aimed through them at something valuable. Send the front piece to the most aggressive square — a discovery without a second threat wastes half its power.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 014
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