Discovered attack: pawn to e3
li-0O2rkThe tactical motive
Discovered attack: one piece steps aside, unleashing another's attack.
Difficulty 2006 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
Black to move — find the best continuation
Position on the board
White: king h1, queen a3, rook d8, pawn e2 g3 b4 h4.
Black: king f7, queen b7, bishop f2, pawn c4 e4 a6 g7 h7.
7 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 36.
Solution & explanation
Main line
36... e3+ 37. Kh2 Qc7 38. Rd7+ Qxd7
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to e3 keeps the pressure (+4.2).
- Well found: queen to c7 (+5.2).
- Strong! queen to d7 is the sharp choice (+5.4).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Kh2, then Qc7 and you stay on top.
Types in this puzzle
Discovered check
The moving piece opens a check — and is free to grab anything meanwhile.
With a discovered check the moving piece unmasks a check from the piece standing behind it. While the king deals with the check, the piece that moved grabs whatever it likes, free of charge. Look for your long-range piece on a line with the enemy king, with exactly one of your own pieces in between. The rule: among all the ways to step aside, pick the one that captures or attacks the most expensive loot.
Only move
Everything else loses — find the only move that holds.
An only move is a position where everything loses except one single continuation. You cannot play "by hand" here: run through fundamentally different defenses — run away, block, trade, counterattack — and discard the ones that fail. The hallmark of these puzzles is that the obvious moves lose quickly while the solution often looks strange. First understand exactly what the threat is — then the one saving move reveals itself.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 014
Similar puzzles
Free, no ads · Android 8.0+ · coming soon to Google Play