Discovered attack: knight to f6 (e4·4)
li-0KHXOnaming tag (square·N)Opens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Discovered attack: one piece steps aside, unleashing another's attack.
Difficulty 1970 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
White to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A discovered attack fires when one piece steps aside and unmasks the piece behind it. Look for your own units that block a rook, bishop or queen: moving the front piece — ideally with a threat of its own — springs two attacks in one move.
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 e1, bishop c1 f1, knight c3 e4, pawn a2 b2 c2 f2 g2 h2 d3.
Black: king g8, queen d8, rook a8 e8, bishop g4 e7, knight d4 f6, pawn d6 h6 a7 b7 c7 f7 g7.
15 white and 15 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 15.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 38 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 White to move on move 15, with 34 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 7. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
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
15. Nxf6+ Bxf6 16. Rxe8+ Qxe8 17. Qxg4
Why it works
- Great move! knight to f6 keeps the pressure (+4.3).
- Well found: rook to e8 (+4.3).
- Strong! queen to g4 is the sharp choice (+4.3).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Bxf6, then Rxe8+ and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 15. Nxf6+ — knight to f6 (capture) with check
- Bxf6 — bishop to f6 (capture)
- 16. Rxe8+ — rook to e8 (capture) with check
- Qxe8 — queen to e8 (capture)
- 17. Qxg4 — queen to g4 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Royal fork
A fork with check: the king must move, and the second piece is lost.
A royal fork is a fork with check — one of the two targets is the king itself. The check must be answered first, so nobody is left to rescue the second piece. Look for squares where your piece gives check and simultaneously attacks an undefended queen or rook. It is the most reliable fork of all, because your opponent literally has no choice.
Remove the defender
Capture the guard first — then take what it protected.
Removing the defender is the straightforward plan: capture the guard first, then take what it guarded. Unlike deflection, the defender is not lured away — it is traded off or destroyed on the spot. Stare at the target you crave and ask who defends it, and whether that defender can be profitably eaten. Count the whole capture sequence, not just the first move — the trade must pay off at the end.
Overload
One defender guards two things — it cannot do both jobs.
Overloading exploits a defender with two jobs at once — guarding a piece and covering a mating square, for instance. It cannot do both: your first strike forces it to handle one duty and abandon the other. Find the overworked piece by asking what happens to each of its charges if it gets distracted. Then hit one target and collect the other — an overloaded defender only pretends to defend.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 014
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