Win the hanging bishop on f3
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The tactical motive
Hanging piece: your opponent left a piece undefended — take it.
Difficulty 2020 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
Black to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A hanging piece is one that is attacked and not defended, or defended too few times. Count attackers against defenders on each enemy unit; where attackers win, take it — often with an in-between move or a check to gain the extra tempo.
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 h2, queen b5, rook g2, bishop h1 h6, knight f3, pawn a2 c3 h3 e4 f5.
Black: king h8, queen f7, rook g8, bishop c5 h5, knight d7, pawn a4 e5 f6 h7.
11 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 38.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 1 points of material (28 against 27; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on h2, the black king on h8.
It is Black to move on move 38, with 40 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, d, g — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: c.
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
38... Bxf3 39. Rxg8+ Qxg8
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to f3 keeps the pressure (+5.6).
- Well found: queen to g8 (+5.6).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Rxg8+, then Qxg8 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 38… Bxf3 — bishop to f3 (capture)
- 39. Rxg8+ — rook to g8 (capture) with check
- Qxg8 — queen to g8 (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.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 014
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