Discovered attack: bishop to h6
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The tactical motive
Discovered attack: one piece steps aside, unleashing another's attack.
Difficulty 2201 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.
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 c1, queen g6, rook h1 h2, bishop d3 h6, pawn a2 b2 c2 e4 d5 f5.
Black: king f8, queen f6, rook g8 h8, bishop b7 g7, pawn b5 e5 a6 d6 c7.
12 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 32.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 1 points of material (31 against 30; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on c1, the black king on f8.
It is Black to move on move 32, with 20 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): g, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: f.
The Black king has 1 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
32... Bxh6+ 33. Rxh6 Rxg6 34. Rxh8+ Rg8
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to h6 keeps the pressure (+2.4).
- Well found: rook to g6 (+2.5).
- Strong! rook to g8 is the sharp choice (+2.7).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Rxh6, then Rxg6 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 32… Bxh6+ — bishop to h6 (capture) with check
- 33. Rxh6 — rook to h6 (capture)
- Rxg6 — rook to g6 (capture)
- 34. Rxh8+ — rook to h8 (capture) with check
- Rg8 — rook to g8
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.
Battery
Two pieces stacked on one line — the front one strikes with double force.
A battery stacks two long-range pieces on one line — a queen behind a bishop on a diagonal, or doubled rooks on a file. The front piece strikes with double force: capture it, and the piece behind recaptures with even more pressure. The battery is ready when both pieces already stare at one point and only the front strike is missing. Build batteries in advance on lines leading to the king — the doubling itself often breeds the combination.
Decoy
A sacrifice lures the king or a piece onto a fatal square.
A decoy is the mirror image of deflection: you sacrifice to drag the king or a piece onto a fatal square. The classic is a queen or rook sac whose capture pulls the king into a knight fork, a discovered check or mate. Find the square where the target will be hit, then find the offer it cannot refuse. Calculate to the very end — a decoy only works when the follow-up is forced.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 015
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