Deflection: rook to g6
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The tactical motive
Deflection: force the defender to abandon its post.
Difficulty 2304 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
White to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
Deflection drags a defender away from its duty. Identify the enemy piece that guards a key square or mate, then force it to move — with a check, a capture or a threat it must answer — and strike where it no longer defends.
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 g3, rook e1 d6, pawn a2 g2 h2.
Black: king g7, queen f4, rook a8 f8, pawn b4 a5 c5 g6 h6.
7 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 34.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 2 points of material (22 against 24; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g1, the black king on g7.
It is White to move on move 34, with 43 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 3 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d, e, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: b, c.
The White king has 1 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
34. Rxg6+ Kh8 35. Rg8+ Rxg8 36. Qxf4
Why it works
- Great move! rook to g6 keeps the pressure (+5.6).
- Well found: rook to g8 (+6.3).
- Strong! queen to f4 is the sharp choice (+6.3).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Kh8, then Rg8+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 34. Rxg6+ — rook to g6 (capture) with check
- Kh8 — king to h8
- 35. Rg8+ — rook to g8 with check
- Rxg8 — rook to g8 (capture)
- 36. Qxf4 — queen to f4 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Win the pinned piece
The pinned piece cannot run — attack it again and win it.
A pinned piece cannot flee, which means you can win it outright by attacking it one more time. Count attackers against defenders: if you outnumber them, the piece is yours. The best extra attacker is a pawn, since it costs less than anything it might capture. Do not rush the capture — build up the pressure first, then harvest.
Battery
Two pieces stacked on one line — the front one strikes with double force.
A battery stacks two long-range pieces on one line — a queen behind a bishop on a diagonal, or doubled rooks on a file. The front piece strikes with double force: capture it, and the piece behind recaptures with even more pressure. The battery is ready when both pieces already stare at one point and only the front strike is missing. Build batteries in advance on lines leading to the king — the doubling itself often breeds the combination.
Deflection
Force the defender away from its duty — then strike what it guarded.
Deflection forces the guard to leave its post: a sacrifice or exchange drags it away from the piece or square it protects. First find the critical defender — the piece whose absence makes the mate or the material win possible. Then find the move it cannot ignore, which is usually a capture. Do not be stingy: if removing the guard wins the queen or mates, the sacrifice pays for itself many times over.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 015
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