Winning blow: king to e3 (d2·5)
c9-10940naming 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 d2, rook c7, pawn c2 a3 d3 e4 h4.
Black: king e5, rook d8, knight e3, pawn c5 d5 h5 h7.
7 white and 7 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 (10 against 12; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on d2, the black king on e5.
It is White to move on move 31, with 20 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, f, g — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
The White king has 5 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
31. Kxe3 d4+ 32. Ke2 Kf4 33. a4 Kg4 34. Rxc5
Why it works
- Great move! king to e3 keeps the pressure (+3.0).
- king to e2 develops smoothly.
- A natural move: pawn to a4.
- Best move. rook to c5 is exactly what the engine plays (+3.5).
- You win a piece — the knight.
- If instead d4+, then Ke2 and you win the knight.
Move by move
- 31. Kxe3 — king to e3 (capture)
- d4+ — pawn to d4 with check
- 32. Ke2 — king to e2
- Kf4 — king to f4
- 33. a4 — pawn to a4
- Kg4 — king to g4
- 34. Rxc5 — rook to c5 (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.
Passed pawn
Nothing can stop the passer — escort it to the last rank.
A passed pawn has no enemy pawns in front of it or on the neighboring files: only pieces can stop it. Check who can blockade the pawn or catch it with the king — if nobody can, the pawn is worth a whole piece. Push the passer with your pieces supporting it, and put your rook behind it. The beginner's mistake is shoving the pawn forward unprotected, straight into a capture.
King march
In the endgame the king is a fighting piece — march it in.
The king march: in the endgame the king is a fighting piece, and often it is his journey forward that wins. It is time to march when the queens are off and checks hold no danger — the king attacks pawns, escorts the passer, takes squares away. The telltale sign of the theme is several king moves in a row. Plan the full route in advance using the rule of the square, and do not let the enemy king grab the opposition.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #681.
SP-681 · BastionGuard — King shifted to c or f, knights kept clear of the edges — 168 positions in all.
The king starts on c1, the rooks on b1 and h1, the queen on a1.
The king already stands on c1, so castling long moves only the rook, from b1 to d1.
The bishops stand on d1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h5 and a5 once the e- and d-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: g2.
The setup belongs to the BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 473.
The engine's main line opens with b4.
Morozov Balance Index: 10 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +43 centipawns for White (depth 42, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #681Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 007 · SP-681
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