Deflection: pawn to b4
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The tactical motive
Deflection: force the defender to abandon its post.
Difficulty 2080 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
White to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
Deflection drags a defender away from its duty. Identify the enemy piece that guards a key square or mate, then force it to move — with a check, a capture or a threat it must answer — and strike where it no longer defends.
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 c3, bishop e2, pawn b3 g3 a4 d4 f4 h4.
Black: king a5, bishop a6, pawn e4 g4 d5 f5 h5 a7.
8 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 56.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 9 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on c3, the black king on a5.
It is White to move on move 56, with 12 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: e.
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
56. b4+ Kb6 57. a5+ Kc6 58. Bxa6
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to b4 keeps the pressure (+5.6).
- Well found: pawn to a5 (+6.6).
- Precise: bishop to a6 is the top choice (+8.5).
- You win a piece — the bishop.
- If instead Kb6, then a5+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 56. b4+ — pawn to b4 with check
- Kb6 — king to b6
- 57. a5+ — pawn to a5 with check
- Kc6 — king to c6
- 58. Bxa6 — bishop to a6 (capture)
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.
Minor-piece endgame
Bishops and knights duel — geometry decides.
A minor-piece endgame leaves only bishops and knights with pawns, and geometry decides. The bishop loves an open board and play on both wings; the knight loves fixed pawns and outpost squares. Check which color squares the pawns stand on and where the knight can actually reach in time. Practical tip: against a knight, spread the play across both flanks — short legs cannot cover everything.
Counter-strike
Don't defend — answer the threat with a bigger one.
The counter-strike: instead of defending against the threat, you answer with a bigger threat of your own. While your opponent grabs a pawn, you deliver mate — the arithmetic favors you. Look for a counter when direct defenses fail: do you have a check, an attack on the queen, a mating threat? The beginner's error is meeting every threat with a reflexive defense without checking the counterattacking resources first.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 015
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