Winning blow: bishop to a8 (h1·5)
c9-09021naming tag (square·N)Opens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Chess960 twist: use the unusual starting setup of the pieces.
Winning tactic: there is a move that gains a decisive advantage — find it.
Difficulty 1200 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
White to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
In Chess960 the pieces start on unfamiliar squares, so tactics appear earlier and from unusual angles. Do not trust classical patterns — read the actual lines of the bishops, the rooks and the queen from where they really stand in this position.
This position hides a concrete tactic that wins material or mates. Start with the most forcing candidate moves — checks, captures and threats — and calculate each to a clear end before choosing; the winning line is usually the one the opponent cannot meet.
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 e1, rook f1, bishop c1 h1, knight g1 d6, pawn b2 f2 h2 a3 g3.
Black: king d7, queen a8, rook f8, bishop h8, knight g8, pawn c4 g6 a7 c7 e7 f7 h7.
11 white and 12 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 15.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 5 points of material (22 against 27; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on e1, the black king on d7.
It is White to move on move 15, with 34 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 7. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: c, e.
White hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The White king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
15. Bxa8 cxd6 16. Bd5 Rb8 17. Kd2 e6 18. Bxc4
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to a8 keeps the pressure (+2.4).
- Well found: bishop to d5 (+2.7).
- Precise: king to d2 is the top choice (+2.4).
- Great move! bishop to c4 keeps the pressure (+2.1).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead cxd6, then Bd5 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 15. Bxa8 — bishop to a8 (capture)
- cxd6 — pawn to d6 (capture)
- 16. Bd5 — bishop to d5
- Rb8 — rook to b8
- 17. Kd2 — king to d2
- e6 — pawn to e6
- 18. Bxc4 — bishop to c4 (capture)
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.
Only move
Everything else loses — find the only move that holds.
An only move is a position where everything loses except one single continuation. You cannot play "by hand" here: run through fundamentally different defenses — run away, block, trade, counterattack — and discard the ones that fail. The hallmark of these puzzles is that the obvious moves lose quickly while the solution often looks strange. First understand exactly what the threat is — then the one saving move reveals itself.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #295.
SP-295 · ThroneGuard — A central king (d or e) and two knights tucked onto inner files: the family that holds the standard array, SP-518.
The king starts on e1, the rooks on d1 and f1, the queen on a1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from e1 to g1.
A bishop starts in the corner on h1: it has a single diagonal, which the g-pawn unlocks, running out to a8.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: c2, h2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 370.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Morozov Balance Index: 75 of 100 — class A — most balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +19 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #295Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 007 · SP-295
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