Chess960 tactic on f6 (c3)
c9-10154naming 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.
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 g1, queen b2, rook d1 h8, bishop b3 c3, knight b1, pawn a2 f2 g2 e3 g6.
Black: king e7, queen a8, rook f6 e8, bishop f3 d8, knight c8, pawn c5 f5 a6 c7 g7.
12 white and 12 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 24.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 33 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on g1, the black king on e7.
It is White to move on move 24, with 51 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, d, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: c.
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. Bxf6+ gxf6 25. Rh7+ Kf8 26. g7+ Ke7 27. g8=Q#
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to f6 keeps the pressure (#3).
- Spot on — rook to h7 (#2).
- Precise: pawn to g7 is the top choice (#1).
- Best move. pawn to g8 is exactly what the engine plays (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 4.
- If instead gxf6, then Rh7+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 24. Bxf6+ — bishop to f6 (capture) with check
- gxf6 — pawn to f6 (capture)
- 25. Rh7+ — rook to h7 with check
- Kf8 — king to f8
- 26. g7+ — pawn to g7 with check
- Ke7 — king to e7
- 27. g8=Q# — pawn to g8 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Discovered mate
A piece steps aside — and the one behind it delivers mate.
In a discovered mate the piece that moves is not the one that mates — the long-range piece behind it delivers the blow. The moving piece is completely free: it can land anywhere, ideally stealing the king's last squares or guarding key points. Look for your rook, bishop or queen lined up with the enemy king, with exactly one of your own pieces in between. When choosing the unveiling move, remember its second job — shutting the king's escape door.
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.
Counter-strike
Don't defend — answer the threat with a bigger one.
The counter-strike: instead of defending against the threat, you answer with a bigger threat of your own. While your opponent grabs a pawn, you deliver mate — the arithmetic favors you. Look for a counter when direct defenses fail: do you have a check, an attack on the queen, a mating threat? The beginner's error is meeting every threat with a reflexive defense without checking the counterattacking resources first.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #9.
SP-9 · RampartGuard — King pushed to the b- or g-file, knights off the edges — 144 positions here.
The king starts on g1, the rooks on f1 and h1, the queen on a1.
The king already stands on its castled square, so castling short moves only the rook, from h1 to f1.
The bishops stand on d1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h5 and a5 once the e- and d-pawns step aside.
The pawn on g2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 953.
The engine's main line opens with h4.
Morozov Balance Index: 65 of 100 — class B — balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +22 centipawns for White (depth 43, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #9Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 015 · SP-9
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