Chess960 tactic on e6
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The tactical motive
Chess960 twist: use the unusual starting setup of the pieces.
Mate: a forcing sequence that ends the game — the king has no escape.
Mate in 4: a forced checkmate in four moves — every reply is covered.
Difficulty 2120 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
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 is a forced mating attack. Start from the enemy king: which of its squares are already covered, and which move takes away the rest while keeping the king in check? Forcing moves — checks and captures — are what turn an attack into mate.
A mate in four is a longer forced net: each of your moves is a check or an irresistible threat, and the king is driven step by step to a square where it is finally trapped. Verify that the defender has exactly one reply at every branch.
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 c1, queen e8, rook a1, bishop c2, knight c5, pawn a2 d2 g2 h2 b3 c3.
Black: king b6, rook a8, knight e6, pawn a5 b5 h6.
11 white and 6 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 23.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 15 points of material (26 against 11; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on c1, the black king on b6.
It is White to move on move 23, with 43 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 3. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
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
23. Qxe6+ Kc7 24. Qd7+ Kb6 25. Qd6+ Ka7 26. Qc7#
Why it works
- Best move. queen to e6 is exactly what the engine plays (#3).
- Spot on — queen to d7 (#2).
- Precise: queen to d6 is the top choice (#1).
- Best move. queen to c7 is exactly what the engine plays (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 4.
- If instead Kc7, then Qd7+ and you win the knight.
Move by move
- 23. Qxe6+ — queen to e6 (capture) with check
- Kc7 — king to c7
- 24. Qd7+ — queen to d7 with check
- Kb6 — king to b6
- 25. Qd6+ — queen to d6 with check
- Ka7 — king to a7
- 26. Qc7# — queen to c7 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Mate in 4+
A long forced mating combination.
Mate in four or longer is a marathon of forcing moves where the grip must never loosen. The tools are the same: checks, double threats and sacrifices that deny the opponent a single free tempo. Do not juggle the whole tree at once — walk the main line all the way to mate first, then verify the side branches. If somewhere the defender finds one quiet move that holds, your very first move was wrong.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #636.
SP-636 · ThroneScout — King on a central file (d/e) with a knight starting on the rim (a/h).
The king starts on d1, the rooks on a1 and f1, the queen on e1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from d1 to g1.
The bishops stand on b1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a7 once the c- and f-pawns step aside.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: b2, g2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 236.
The engine's main line opens with f4.
Morozov Balance Index: 20 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +37 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #636Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 015 · SP-636
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