Winning blow: bishop to c4 (b5)
c9-09589naming 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 1110 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 b1, queen g2, bishop b5, knight c1, pawn f2 b3 e3 a4 h4 a5 g5.
Black: king e6, queen d5, rook g8, bishop b4, knight e8, pawn h5 b6 g6 f7.
11 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 31.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 2 points of material (22 against 24; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on b1, the black king on e6.
It is White to move on move 31, with 30 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c, d — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
The White king has 4 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
31. Bc4 Qxc4 32. bxc4
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to c4 keeps the pressure (+6.0).
- Well found: pawn to c4 (+6.1).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Qxc4, then bxc4 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 31. Bc4 — bishop to c4
- Qxc4 — queen to c4 (capture)
- 32. bxc4 — pawn to c4 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Quiet move
No check, no capture — yet this modest move decides the game.
A quiet move gives no check and takes nothing — yet it decides the game by creating an unstoppable threat or stealing the king's last square. This is the hardest class of moves: the eye hunts for loud blows while a modest shift does the winning. The clue: every forcing try runs into a defense, so seek the move that strengthens the threat or takes squares away. Train yourself to ask: what if I neither capture nor check, but quietly improve?
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #760.
SP-760 · BastionGuard — Both knights begin inside the board while the king stands on c or f; a position and its mirror twin share this family.
The king starts on c1, the rooks on a1 and g1, the queen on h1.
The king already stands on c1, so castling long moves only the rook, from a1 to d1.
The bishops stand on b1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a5 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: e2.
The setup belongs to the BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 397.
The engine's main line opens with d4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Morozov Balance Index: 2 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +61 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
In 50 self-play games White scored 56.0% (95% CI 42.3–68.8%).
Explore position #760Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 007 · SP-760
Similar puzzles
In your browser or in the Android app. Nothing to install · Free, no ads