Discovered attack: bishop to h7 (d3·9)
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The tactical motive
Discovered attack: one piece steps aside, unleashing another's attack.
Difficulty 1822 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 g1, queen g3, rook a1 e1, bishop d3 g5, pawn a2 f2 g2 h2.
Black: king g8, queen c3, rook a8 f8, bishop c8, knight e5 f6, pawn a6 e6 b7 d7 g7 h7.
10 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 18.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 5 points of material (29 against 34; 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 18, with 44 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: b, d, e.
White 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
18. Bxh7+ Nxh7 19. Qxc3 Nf3+ 20. gxf3
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to h7 keeps the pressure (+2.8).
- Well found: queen to c3 (+2.9).
- Strong! pawn to f3 is the sharp choice (+3.0).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Nxh7, then Qxc3 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 18. Bxh7+ — bishop to h7 (capture) with check
- Nxh7 — knight to h7 (capture)
- 19. Qxc3 — queen to c3 (capture)
- Nf3+ — knight to f3 with check
- 20. gxf3 — pawn to f3 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Discovered attack
A piece steps aside and opens a second attack from the piece behind it.
A discovered attack works like a curtain: one piece steps off the line and unveils the long-range piece behind it. The beauty is that the moving piece can create a second threat of its own — two attacks in one move. Look for your stacked pairs: a bishop or rook behind a knight or pawn, aimed through them at something valuable. Send the front piece to the most aggressive square — a discovery without a second threat wastes half its power.
Remove the defender
Capture the guard first — then take what it protected.
Removing the defender is the straightforward plan: capture the guard first, then take what it guarded. Unlike deflection, the defender is not lured away — it is traded off or destroyed on the spot. Stare at the target you crave and ask who defends it, and whether that defender can be profitably eaten. Count the whole capture sequence, not just the first move — the trade must pay off at the end.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 013
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