Winning blow: queen to d5 (c6·4)
c9-11021naming tag (square·N)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 1870 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
White to move — find the best continuation
Position on the board
White: king g1, queen c6, rook b1 g3, bishop e3, knight e4, pawn a2 c2 b3 f3 h4 e5.
Black: king g8, queen e7, pawn a5 b5 h5 c7 g7.
12 white and 7 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 27.
Solution & explanation
Main line
27. Qd5+ Kh8 28. Qa8+ Kh7 29. Nf6+
Why it works
- Best move. queen to d5 is exactly what the engine plays (#5).
- Spot on — queen to a8 (#4).
- Precise: knight to f6 is the top choice (#3).
- You win decisive material (+15.0).
- If instead Kh8, then Qa8+ and you stay on top.
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.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #434.
SP-434 · RampartGuard — A b- or g-file king and two knights on inner files (b–g).
The king starts on g1, the rooks on b1 and h1, the queen on e1.
The king already stands on its castled square, so castling short moves only the rook, from h1 to f1.
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: c2.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 711.
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 48, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #434Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 014 · SP-434
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