Pin: rook to f7 (f1)
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The tactical motive
Deflection: force the defender to abandon its post.
Pin: a piece can't move without exposing something more valuable behind it.
Difficulty 2093 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.
A pin freezes a piece in front of a more valuable one behind it. Scan the ranks, files and diagonals your bishop, rook or queen controls: if an enemy piece cannot move without exposing its king or queen, it is pinned and can be piled on or bypassed.
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 d2, rook f1, bishop e4, pawn b3 d3 h3 a4 d5.
Black: king h7, queen h5, bishop g3 g6, knight g8, pawn c5 a6 b6 h6.
9 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 40.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 22 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on h1, the black king on h7.
It is White to move on move 40, with 41 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e, f, g — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: c.
Black hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. 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
40. Rf7+ Kh8 41. Bxg6 Qxh3+ 42. Kg1
Why it works
- Great move! rook to f7 keeps the pressure (+3.9).
- Well found: bishop to g6 (+4.7).
- Strong! king to g1 is the sharp choice (+5.2).
- You win decisive material (+5.2).
- If instead Kh8, then Bxg6 and you win the bishop.
Move by move
- 40. Rf7+ — rook to f7 with check
- Kh8 — king to h8
- 41. Bxg6 — bishop to g6 (capture)
- Qxh3+ — queen to h3 (capture) with check
- 42. Kg1 — king to g1
Types in this puzzle
Absolute pin
A piece is pinned against its king — it cannot legally move.
An absolute pin freezes a piece on the line between its own king and your long-range attacker: moving it is simply illegal. The pattern is three units on one straight line — your bishop, rook or queen, an enemy piece, and the enemy king behind it. A pinned piece neither attacks nor defends anything: treat it as if it were off the board. Pile up on it, ideally with a pawn, because running away is against the rules.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 015
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