Staircase maneuver

The staircase maneuver (or staircase movement^[1]) is a tactical motif that employs the idea of a series of checks, or alternation between pins and checks, to advance a queen, rook, or king along a diagonal via a series of stepped orthogonal moves.

Examples

Staircase maneuvers tend to occur in queen and pawn endgames, where the defender has advanced pawns on the seventh rank. Here the attacking queen alternates between black and white squares giving pins and checks until it reaches an open file to deliver the final mate.

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

White mates in 12

In the diagram, if Black's pawn on b2 had already queened on b1, the game would be drawn. White mates in 12, however, using the staircase maneuver:

 1.Qc3 Kb1 2.Qd3+ Ka1 3.Qd4 Kb1 4.Qe4+ Ka1 5.Qe5 Kb1 6.Qf5+ Ka1 7.Qf6 Kb1 8.Qg6+ Ka1 9.Qg7 Kb1 10.Qh7+ Ka1 11.Qh8 Kb1 12.Qh1#^[2]

a b c d e f g h 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 a b c d e f g h Tarrasch resigned after 34.Kh1 Bxh3 35.gxh3 Rf3 36.Ng3 h4 37.Bf6 Qxf6 38.Nxe4 Rxh3+.

a b c d e f g h 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 a b c d e f g h 37...Rg3+ begins a staircase.

In the game Tarrasch–Alekhine, Piešt'any 1922, after 33...Be6 (first diagram), if play had continued instead 34.Qc6 Rf3 35.Qxe4 Bd5 36.Qa4 Qxg2+ 37.Kxg2 (second diagram), a staircase maneuver resulting in mate is possible:

 37...Rg3+ 38.Kh2 Rg2+ 39.Kh1 Rh2+ 40.Kg1 Rh1#^[3]

See also

• Chess tactics
• Windmill

References

1. Hooper & Whyld (1996), p. 387. staircase movement.
2. George Huczek (2017). A to Z Chess Tactics. Batsford. pp. 1–349. ISBN 978-1-8499-4446-5.
3. Hooper & Whyld (1996), p. 8.

Bibliography

• Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1996) [First pub. 1992]. The Oxford Companion to Chess (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280049-3.