Winning blow: rook to e7 (e1·7)
c9-09777naming 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.
A fork made possible by the Chess960 piece placement.
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.
A set-up fork needs one preparing move before the fork lands — a check that drives the king onto the forking square, or a capture that lines the targets up. Find the preparation first, then the fork it makes possible.
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 c1, queen a5, rook e1, bishop b1 c3, pawn d2 h2 b3 g4 f5.
Black: king f7, queen e7, rook c6 h8, bishop b7, knight d6, pawn f6 g7 h7.
10 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 24.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 3 points of material (25 against 28; 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 f7.
It is White to move on move 24, with 38 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 3. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, c, e — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
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
24. Rxe7+ Kxe7 25. g5 Rhc8 26. Kb2 Rc5 27. gxf6+
Why it works
- Great move! rook to e7 keeps the pressure (+4.3).
- pawn to g5 develops smoothly.
- A natural move: king to b2.
- Best move. pawn to f6 is exactly what the engine plays (+4.3).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Kxe7, then g5 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 24. Rxe7+ — rook to e7 (capture) with check
- Kxe7 — king to e7 (capture)
- 25. g5 — pawn to g5
- Rhc8 — rook to c8
- 26. Kb2 — king to b2
- Rc5 — rook to c5
- 27. gxf6+ — pawn to f6 (capture) with check
Types in this puzzle
Setup fork
The random setup allows a fork that classical chess never sees.
A setup fork is a double attack that exists only because of the unusual starting squares — in classical chess these targets never stand side by side. Look for pairs of undefended pieces on your opponent's back rank and for squares from which a knight or pawn hits both at once. Such forks usually appear within the first moves, before the pieces disperse. In every new position, note right away which starting pieces are defended by no one.
Overload
One defender guards two things — it cannot do both jobs.
Overloading exploits a defender with two jobs at once — guarding a piece and covering a mating square, for instance. It cannot do both: your first strike forces it to handle one duty and abandon the other. Find the overworked piece by asking what happens to each of its charges if it gets distracted. Then hit one target and collect the other — an overloaded defender only pretends to defend.
Remove the defender
Capture the guard first — then take what it protected.
Removing the defender is the straightforward plan: capture the guard first, then take what it guarded. Unlike deflection, the defender is not lured away — it is traded off or destroyed on the spot. Stare at the target you crave and ask who defends it, and whether that defender can be profitably eaten. Count the whole capture sequence, not just the first move — the trade must pay off at the end.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #624.
SP-624 · ThroneScout — King on a central file (d/e) with a knight starting on the rim (a/h).
The king starts on e1, the rooks on c1 and g1, the queen on f1.
Castling ends where it always does: king to g1 and rook to f1 on the short side, king to c1 and rook to d1 on the long one.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: h2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 239.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Morozov Balance Index: 80 of 100 — class A — most balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +17 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #624Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 007 · SP-624
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