Deflection: knight to h3
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The tactical motive
Deflection: force the defender to abandon its post.
Difficulty 1875 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
Black 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 h1, queen b3, rook e1 g1, bishop f1, knight f3, pawn a2 f2 g2 h3 d4 c5 b6.
Black: king g8, queen f5, rook g6, bishop e4 b8, knight f4, pawn d5 h6 f7 g7.
13 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 28.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 5 points of material (32 against 27; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on h1, the black king on g8.
It is Black to move on move 28, with 37 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: a, b, c.
Black hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The Black king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
28... Nxh3 29. gxh3 Bxf3+ 30. Qxf3 Qxf3+
Why it works
- Great move! knight to h3 keeps the pressure (+2.9).
- Well found: bishop to f3 (+3.0).
- Strong! queen to f3 is the sharp choice (+3.1).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead gxh3, then Bxf3+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 28… Nxh3 — knight to h3 (capture)
- 29. gxh3 — pawn to h3 (capture)
- Bxf3+ — bishop to f3 (capture) with check
- 30. Qxf3 — queen to f3 (capture)
- Qxf3+ — queen to f3 (capture) with check
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.
Winning exchange
A forced series of captures on one square ends in your favour.
A winning exchange is a forced series of captures on one square that leaves you ahead in material. It is pure arithmetic: count the attackers and defenders of the square and note the value of every piece in the queue. Capture in the right order — cheap pieces first, expensive ones later — or a winning trade turns into a losing one. The classic error is stopping the count halfway and missing the opponent's final recapture.
Clearance
Clear your own piece out of the way — with tempo — for the decisive blow.
Clearance is about your own piece standing in the way of the decisive blow — so you move it aside, or even throw it away. The key is to clear with tempo: jump off with a check, a capture or a threat, giving the opponent no time to regroup. The telltale sign: you see a crushing queen or rook move, but one of your own pieces blocks the line or occupies the square. Do not cling to it — a clearance sacrifice usually costs less than a missed attack.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 014
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