Win the hanging king on g2 (g1·2)
li-0LdAKnaming tag (square·N)Opens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Hanging piece: your opponent left a piece undefended — take it.
Difficulty 2194 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
White to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A hanging piece is one that is attacked and not defended, or defended too few times. Count attackers against defenders on each enemy unit; where attackers win, take it — often with an in-between move or a check to gain the extra tempo.
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 d4, rook d1 d2, bishop h4, pawn a2 b2 h2 c3 f3.
Black: king g8, queen d7, rook g2 e8, knight g5, pawn d5 h6 a7 b7 f7 g7.
10 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 22.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 1 points of material (27 against 28; 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 White to move on move 22, with 4 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle. White are in check right now, so every reply must answer the check.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: d, g.
The White king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
22. Kxg2 Qh3+ 23. Kh1 Qxf3+ 24. Rg2
Why it works
- Great move! king to g2 keeps the pressure (+2.7).
- Well found: king to h1 (+2.9).
- Strong! rook to g2 is the sharp choice (+2.9).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Qh3+, then Kh1 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 22. Kxg2 — king to g2 (capture)
- Qh3+ — queen to h3 with check
- 23. Kh1 — king to h1
- Qxf3+ — queen to f3 (capture) with check
- 24. Rg2 — rook to g2
Types in this puzzle
Winning blow
Find the strike that wins material by force.
A winning blow is a forced material gain that does not fit a single textbook motif. The general tactical recipe applies: spot loose pieces, an awkwardly placed king, overloaded lines. Go through the forcing moves in order of violence — checks, captures, threats — because most combinations start with one of them. Do not judge by feel: calculate the concrete line until the outcome is beyond doubt.
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.
King evacuation
The king walks out of the danger zone on its own feet.
King evacuation: when the shelter collapses, the king walks out of the attack on his own feet — sometimes across half the board. A series of precise king moves carries him out of the firing zone, and the enemy attack dissolves. The signs: no direct defense works, but there is a route over unattacked squares to a quiet corner. Calculate the entire journey in advance — a king stranded halfway usually dies there.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 015
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