Deflection: pawn to d3
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The tactical motive
Deflection: force the defender to abandon its post.
Difficulty 2267 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
Black 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 a4, knight e1, pawn a5 f5.
Black: king a6, knight c4, pawn e2 d4.
4 white and 4 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 59.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 5 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on a4, the black king on a6.
It is Black to move on move 59, with 11 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 2 pawns, Black 2. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, c, g, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: a, f.
The Black king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
59... d3 60. Nxd3 Nb2+ 61. Nxb2 e1=Q
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to d3 keeps the pressure (+4.3).
- Well found: knight to b2 (+4.4).
- Strong! pawn to e1 is the sharp choice (+4.9).
- You win decisive material (+4.9).
- If instead Nxd3, then Nb2+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 59… d3 — pawn to d3
- 60. Nxd3 — knight to d3 (capture)
- Nb2+ — knight to b2 with check
- 61. Nxb2 — knight to b2 (capture)
- e1=Q — pawn to e1
Types in this puzzle
Promotion
The pawn reaches the last rank and becomes a queen — decisively.
Promotion turns a pawn on the last rank into a queen and rewrites the evaluation on the spot. In tactics the passer rarely walks in for free — usually a sacrifice clears its path. Count the tempi: how many moves does the pawn need, and can the defender stop it in time? And watch the promotion square itself — it must be out of enemy reach or won by force in your combination.
Promotion race
Both sides push passers — win the race by a tempo.
A promotion race is a sprint between two passed pawns: both sides push toward the last rank, and victory goes to whoever queens first or queens with check. You will recognize it when both players have far-advanced passers that neither king can catch. Count the tempi literally, move by move, all the way to promotion. The classic mistake is spending a tempo on a "useful" move — in a race, almost any non-pawn move loses.
Quiet move
No check, no capture — yet this modest move decides the game.
A quiet move gives no check and takes nothing — yet it decides the game by creating an unstoppable threat or stealing the king's last square. This is the hardest class of moves: the eye hunts for loud blows while a modest shift does the winning. The clue: every forcing try runs into a defense, so seek the move that strengthens the threat or takes squares away. Train yourself to ask: what if I neither capture nor check, but quietly improve?
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 015
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