Pin: bishop to h3 (c8)
li-0SNQMnaming tag (square·N)Opens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Discovered attack: one piece steps aside, unleashing another's attack.
Pin: a piece can't move without exposing something more valuable behind it.
Difficulty 2299 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
Black 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.
A pin freezes a piece in front of a more valuable one behind it. Scan the ranks, files and diagonals your bishop, rook or queen controls: if an enemy piece cannot move without exposing its king or queen, it is pinned and can be piled on or bypassed.
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 g1, queen e8, rook b1 f3, pawn a2 g2 c3 e3 h3 d4 c5.
Black: king h7, queen g7, rook a8, bishop c8, knight h6, pawn d5 e5 a6 c6 b7.
11 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 25.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 1 points of material (26 against 25; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g1, the black king on h7.
It is Black to move on move 25, with 29 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): f — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: g, h.
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
25... Bxh3 26. Rg3 Rxe8 27. Rxg7+ Kxg7
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to h3 keeps the pressure (+3.1).
- Well found: rook to e8 (+3.5).
- Strong! king to g7 is the sharp choice (+3.5).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Rg3, then Rxe8 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 25… Bxh3 — bishop to h3 (capture)
- 26. Rg3 — rook to g3
- Rxe8 — rook to e8 (capture)
- 27. Rxg7+ — rook to g7 (capture) with check
- Kxg7 — king to g7 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Discovered attack
A piece steps aside and opens a second attack from the piece behind it.
A discovered attack works like a curtain: one piece steps off the line and unveils the long-range piece behind it. The beauty is that the moving piece can create a second threat of its own — two attacks in one move. Look for your stacked pairs: a bishop or rook behind a knight or pawn, aimed through them at something valuable. Send the front piece to the most aggressive square — a discovery without a second threat wastes half its power.
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.
Simplification
Trade the heavy pieces and steer into a won endgame.
Simplification is how you convert an advantage: by trading queens and rooks you extinguish the counterplay and steer the game into a won endgame. The rule is simple — the side with extra material trades pieces but keeps pawns. Look for exchanges once the material is already won and your opponent is still rattling threats. The mistake is avoiding the queen trade and letting him muddy the water forever.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 015
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