Discovered attack: knight to d4 (f5)
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The tactical motive
Discovered attack: one piece steps aside, unleashing another's attack.
Difficulty 1867 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
Black 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 c3, rook b1 f1, bishop e2 f4, knight f3 d4, pawn b2 f2 g2 h2 a4 e5.
Black: king g8, queen c7, rook a8 f8, bishop d7 e7, knight f5 c6, pawn a6 e6 b7 g7 h7.
14 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 17.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 1 points of material (37 against 36; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g1, the black king on g8.
It is Black to move on move 17, with 50 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c, d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: f.
The Black king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
17... Nfxd4 18. Nxd4 Rxf4
Why it works
- Great move! knight to d4 keeps the pressure (+3.7).
- Well found: rook to f4 (+3.6).
- You win a piece — the bishop.
- If instead Nxd4, then Rxf4 and you win the bishop.
Move by move
- 17… Nfxd4 — knight to d4 (capture)
- 18. Nxd4 — knight to d4 (capture)
- Rxf4 — rook to f4 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Decoy
A sacrifice lures the king or a piece onto a fatal square.
A decoy is the mirror image of deflection: you sacrifice to drag the king or a piece onto a fatal square. The classic is a queen or rook sac whose capture pulls the king into a knight fork, a discovered check or mate. Find the square where the target will be hit, then find the offer it cannot refuse. Calculate to the very end — a decoy only works when the follow-up is forced.
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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