Rescue the king to e7
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The tactical motive
Save the piece: one of your pieces is attacked — find the best way to rescue it.
Difficulty 2095 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
Black to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
Here the task is defensive: one of your pieces is under attack and must be rescued without losing more. Look for a move that saves it with tempo — a counter-check, an equal counter-attack or an interposition — rather than a passive retreat.
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, rook f1 d6, bishop b1, pawn h2 d4.
Black: king f6, rook a1, bishop c4, knight c6, pawn b5 f5 h5 g6.
6 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 33.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 15 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 f6.
It is Black to move on move 33, with 5 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle. Black are in check right now, so every reply must answer the check.
White keeps 2 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, c, e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: d.
The Black king has 4 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
33... Ke7 34. Rxc6 Bxf1 35. Kxf1 Rxb1+
Why it works
- Great move! king to e7 keeps the pressure (+3.9).
- Well found: bishop to f1 (+3.8).
- Strong! rook to b1 is the sharp choice (+3.7).
- You reach a winning position (+3.7).
- If instead Rxc6, then Bxf1 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 33… Ke7 — king to e7
- 34. Rxc6 — rook to c6 (capture)
- Bxf1 — bishop to f1 (capture)
- 35. Kxf1 — king to f1 (capture)
- Rxb1+ — rook to b1 (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.
Endgame tactic
Tactics live in the endgame too — strike while material is scarce.
Tactics do not retire when the queens come off: forks, pins and double attacks live on in the endgame. With so little material left, every tactical loss is almost always decisive. The signs are the usual ones — undefended pieces, king and piece on one line, a pawn about to promote. Even in a "technical" ending, scan for a shot before every move, both yours and your opponent's.
Save the piece
The attacked piece can be saved — with profit.
Saving the piece: one of your pieces is attacked, and the job is not to lose it for nothing. There are several tools: retreat with tempo, defend it, block the attack, or create a bigger counter-threat. Before retreating automatically, look for a retreat that attacks something — you save the piece and gain time in one move. The typical mistake is panicking onto the first available square, where the piece gets trapped again.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 015
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