Discovered attack: pawn to d4 (d3)
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The tactical motive
Discovered attack: one piece steps aside, unleashing another's attack.
Difficulty 1814 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 g2, queen d2, bishop c2, pawn d3 h3 b4 e4.
Black: king h7, queen e5, bishop c6, pawn b5 d5 h6 b7 g7.
7 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 41.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 1 points of material (16 against 17; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g2, the black king on h7.
It is White to move on move 41, with 22 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, c, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: g.
The White king has 5 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
41. d4 Qe7 42. exd5+ Kg8 43. dxc6
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to d4 keeps the pressure (+4.5).
- Well found: pawn to d5 (+4.4).
- Strong! pawn to c6 is the sharp choice (+4.5).
- You win a piece — the bishop.
- If instead Qe7, then exd5+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 41. d4 — pawn to d4
- Qe7 — queen to e7
- 42. exd5+ — pawn to d5 (capture) with check
- Kg8 — king to g8
- 43. dxc6 — pawn to c6 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Discovered check
The moving piece opens a check — and is free to grab anything meanwhile.
With a discovered check the moving piece unmasks a check from the piece standing behind it. While the king deals with the check, the piece that moved grabs whatever it likes, free of charge. Look for your long-range piece on a line with the enemy king, with exactly one of your own pieces in between. The rule: among all the ways to step aside, pick the one that captures or attacks the most expensive loot.
Only move
Everything else loses — find the only move that holds.
An only move is a position where everything loses except one single continuation. You cannot play "by hand" here: run through fundamentally different defenses — run away, block, trade, counterattack — and discard the ones that fail. The hallmark of these puzzles is that the obvious moves lose quickly while the solution often looks strange. First understand exactly what the threat is — then the one saving move reveals itself.
Queen endgame
Queens on an open board — precision above all.
Queen endgames are treacherous: the queen reaches everywhere, and one slip turns a win into perpetual check. The signs are few pawns, exposed kings, and checks hanging in the air. Tuck your king away early, and use your own checks to bring the queen closer or push your passer with tempo. The typical mistake is grabbing pawns while leaving your king exposed to endless checks.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 013
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