Discovered attack: pawn to e5 (f4)
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The tactical motive
Discovered attack: one piece steps aside, unleashing another's attack.
Difficulty 2230 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
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 h1, queen d1, rook a1 f1, bishop g5, knight c3, pawn a2 b2 c2 g2 d3 e4 f4 h4.
Black: king f7, queen g7, rook a8 g8, bishop c5, knight c6 f6, pawn e5 d6 e6 a7 b7 c7.
14 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 16.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 1 points of material (33 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 h1, the black king on f7.
It is White to move on move 16, with 32 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 8 pawns, Black 6. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in.
The White king has 1 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
16. fxe5 Qxg5 17. Rxf6+ Qxf6 18. exf6
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to e5 keeps the pressure (+2.8).
- Well found: rook to f6 (+3.3).
- Strong! pawn to f6 is the sharp choice (+3.1).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Qxg5, then Rxf6+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 16. fxe5 — pawn to e5 (capture)
- Qxg5 — queen to g5 (capture)
- 17. Rxf6+ — rook to f6 (capture) with check
- Qxf6 — queen to f6 (capture)
- 18. exf6 — pawn to f6 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Win the pinned piece
The pinned piece cannot run — attack it again and win it.
A pinned piece cannot flee, which means you can win it outright by attacking it one more time. Count attackers against defenders: if you outnumber them, the piece is yours. The best extra attacker is a pawn, since it costs less than anything it might capture. Do not rush the capture — build up the pressure first, then harvest.
Trapped piece
The attacked piece has no safe square — it is caught.
Trapping a piece means the attacked piece has no safe square left — it simply perishes. Do not chase it around; build a cage instead: cut off the escape squares with pawns and pieces first, and attack last. The typical victim has wandered deep into your camp or is stuck at the edge of the board, where its mobility is tiny. And always check the way home for your own raiders — or the trapped piece will be yours.
Winning exchange
A forced series of captures on one square ends in your favour.
A winning exchange is a forced series of captures on one square that leaves you ahead in material. It is pure arithmetic: count the attackers and defenders of the square and note the value of every piece in the queue. Capture in the right order — cheap pieces first, expensive ones later — or a winning trade turns into a losing one. The classic error is stopping the count halfway and missing the opponent's final recapture.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 015
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