Skewer: pawn to b8
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The tactical motive
Skewer: a valuable piece is forced to move, exposing the one behind it.
Difficulty 2100 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
White to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A skewer is a pin reversed — the valuable piece stands in front and, when it moves, the piece behind falls. Line your rook, bishop or queen up against the king or queen and win whatever is hiding behind it.
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 d4, rook h7, pawn b7.
Black: king f5, rook a7, pawn h2 g3.
3 white and 4 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 49.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 1 points of material (6 against 7; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on d4, the black king on f5.
It is White to move on move 49, with 21 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 1 pawns, Black 2. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, c, d, e, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: g, h.
The White king has 6 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
49. b8=Q Rxh7 50. Qb1+ Kg4 51. Qxh7
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to b8 keeps the pressure (+5.1).
- Well found: queen to b1 (#13).
- Strong! queen to h7 is the sharp choice (#12).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Rxh7, then Qb1+ and you win the pawn.
Move by move
- 49. b8=Q — pawn to b8
- Rxh7 — rook to h7 (capture)
- 50. Qb1+ — queen to b1 with check
- Kg4 — king to g4
- 51. Qxh7 — queen to h7 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Skewer
A line attack forces the valuable piece to move, exposing the one behind it.
A skewer is a pin turned inside out: the valuable piece stands in front and something cheaper hides behind it. The big piece must step aside, and you collect the one that was sheltering in its shadow. Scan for the enemy king or queen sharing a file, rank or diagonal with another enemy piece. The deadliest version comes with check — the king moves, the rook behind it dies.
Promotion race
Both sides push passers — win the race by a tempo.
A promotion race is a sprint between two passed pawns: both sides push toward the last rank, and victory goes to whoever queens first or queens with check. You will recognize it when both players have far-advanced passers that neither king can catch. Count the tempi literally, move by move, all the way to promotion. The classic mistake is spending a tempo on a "useful" move — in a race, almost any non-pawn move loses.
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.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 015
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