Rescue the rook to d1 (d8)
li-0LnAJnaming tag (square·N)Opens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Save the piece: one of your pieces is attacked — find the best way to rescue it.
Difficulty 2559 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, queen h6, rook d1 f1, bishop f5, pawn a2 b2 g2 c3 f3 h3.
Black: king g8, queen c6, rook f7 d8, bishop e5 b7, pawn b6 e6 a7.
11 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 23.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 28 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 g8.
It is Black to move on move 23, with 51 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 3. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: c, f, g, h.
Black hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The Black king has 0 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
23... Rxd1 24. Rxd1 Rxf5 25. Rd8+ Kf7
Why it works
- Brilliant! The rook on d1 is a sacrifice that works — you are winning (+3.2).
- Well found: rook to f5 (+3.7).
- Strong! king to f7 is the sharp choice (+3.9).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Rxd1, then Rxf5 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 23… Rxd1 — rook to d1 (capture)
- 24. Rxd1 — rook to d1 (capture)
- Rxf5 — rook to f5 (capture)
- 25. Rd8+ — rook to d8 with check
- Kf7 — king to f7
Types in this puzzle
X-ray
A long-range piece acts through an enemy piece on the same line.
An X-ray lets a long-range piece act through an enemy piece standing on the same line — its power shines straight through. The square behind looks safe or defended, and that illusion is exactly what the tactic exploits. Check your rooks, bishops and queens: is a key square or a target hiding behind an enemy piece on their line? When counting captures on a square, include the X-ray attackers — they join the fight the moment the line opens.
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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