Winning blow: knight to a5 (c4·5)
c9-11851naming 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 1890 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
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 c1, queen a6, rook b1 e1, bishop a1, knight c4 f5, pawn d2 h2 f3 g3 b4 e4.
Black: king c8, queen f7, rook b7 e8, bishop d8, knight f4 e6, pawn e5 f6 c7 d7 g7 h7.
13 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 20.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 34 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on c1, the black king on c8.
It is White to move on move 20, with 50 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: c.
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
20. Na5 Nd3+ 21. Kd1 Nf2+ 22. Ke2 Nf4+ 23. Kxf2
Why it works
- Sensible development: knight to a5.
- Well found: king to d1 (+10.3).
- A natural move: king to e2.
- Great move! king to f2 keeps the pressure (+10.8).
- You win a piece — the knight.
- If instead Nd3+, then Kd1 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 20. Na5 — knight to a5
- Nd3+ — knight to d3 with check
- 21. Kd1 — king to d1
- Nf2+ — knight to f2 with check
- 22. Ke2 — king to e2
- Nf4+ — knight to f4 with check
- 23. Kxf2 — king to f2 (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 #929.
SP-929 · BastionScout — King shifted to c or f, with a knight committed to the corner from move one.
The king starts on c1, the rooks on b1 and e1, the queen on g1.
The king already stands on c1, so castling long moves only the rook, from b1 to d1.
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: a2.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 27.
The engine's main line opens with f4.
Morozov Balance Index: 11 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +42 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #929Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 014 · SP-929
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