Win the hanging rook on f3 (f8)
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The tactical motive
Hanging piece: your opponent left a piece undefended — take it.
Difficulty 2143 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 g5, rook g1 e2, bishop f3, pawn a2 d3 e4 d5 h5.
Black: king g8, queen c3, rook e8 f8, bishop b7, pawn c5 b6 d6 a7 g7.
10 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 31.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 27 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on h2, the black king on g8.
It is Black to move on move 31, with 41 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): f — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: e, h.
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
31... Rxf3 32. e5 Rf7 33. e6 Rfe7
Why it works
- Great move! rook to f3 keeps the pressure (+1.6).
- Well found: rook to f7 (+1.6).
- Strong! rook to e7 is the sharp choice (+1.6).
- You win a piece — the bishop.
- If instead e5, then Rf7 and you win the bishop.
Move by move
- 31… Rxf3 — rook to f3 (capture)
- 32. e5 — pawn to e5
- Rf7 — rook to f7
- 33. e6 — pawn to e6
- Rfe7 — rook to e7
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 015
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