Discovered attack: rook to a1
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The tactical motive
Discovered attack: one piece steps aside, unleashing another's attack.
Difficulty 2160 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 g1, rook a1 f1, bishop e2 e3, pawn g2 f3 h3 b4 d4 c5.
Black: king g8, rook a8 e8, bishop f5 f8, pawn e4 g5 c6 h6 b7 f7.
11 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 22.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 22 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on g1, the black king on g8.
It is Black to move on move 22, with 36 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: d.
The Black king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
22... Rxa1 23. Rxa1 exf3 24. Bxf3 Rxe3
Why it works
- Great move! rook to a1 keeps the pressure (+4.3).
- Well found: pawn to f3 (+4.1).
- Strong! rook to e3 is the sharp choice (+4.1).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Rxa1, then exf3 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 22… Rxa1 — rook to a1 (capture)
- 23. Rxa1 — rook to a1 (capture)
- exf3 — pawn to f3 (capture)
- 24. Bxf3 — bishop to f3 (capture)
- Rxe3 — rook to e3 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Clearance
Clear your own piece out of the way — with tempo — for the decisive blow.
Clearance is about your own piece standing in the way of the decisive blow — so you move it aside, or even throw it away. The key is to clear with tempo: jump off with a check, a capture or a threat, giving the opponent no time to regroup. The telltale sign: you see a crushing queen or rook move, but one of your own pieces blocks the line or occupies the square. Do not cling to it — a clearance sacrifice usually costs less than a missed attack.
Overload
One defender guards two things — it cannot do both jobs.
Overloading exploits a defender with two jobs at once — guarding a piece and covering a mating square, for instance. It cannot do both: your first strike forces it to handle one duty and abandon the other. Find the overworked piece by asking what happens to each of its charges if it gets distracted. Then hit one target and collect the other — an overloaded defender only pretends to defend.
X-ray
A long-range piece acts through an enemy piece on the same line.
An X-ray lets a long-range piece act through an enemy piece standing on the same line — its power shines straight through. The square behind looks safe or defended, and that illusion is exactly what the tactic exploits. Check your rooks, bishops and queens: is a key square or a target hiding behind an enemy piece on their line? When counting captures on a square, include the X-ray attackers — they join the fight the moment the line opens.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 015
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