Winning blow: pawn to c5 (c4·12)
c9-11920naming 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 1750 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 e1, queen f2, rook c1 h1, bishop b3, knight d3 h3, pawn a2 d2 e2 g2 f3 b4 c4 h4.
Black: king e7, queen d6, rook b8 f8, bishop c6, knight f7 g8, pawn f5 b6 e6 g6 a7 c7 d7 h7.
15 white and 15 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 14.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 36 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on e1, the black king on e7.
It is White to move on move 14, with 37 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 8 pawns, Black 8. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in.
The White king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
14. c5 bxc5 15. bxc5 Qxd3 16. exd3
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to c5 keeps the pressure (+5.2).
- Well found: pawn to c5 (+5.2).
- Strong! pawn to d3 is the sharp choice (+5.2).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead bxc5, then bxc5 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 14. c5 — pawn to c5
- bxc5 — pawn to c5 (capture)
- 15. bxc5 — pawn to c5 (capture)
- Qxd3 — queen to d3 (capture)
- 16. exd3 — pawn to d3 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
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.
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 #657.
SP-657 · ThroneGuard — Both knights start on inner files (b–g) while the king sits centrally on d or e — one of 204 positions filed here.
The king starts on e1, the rooks on b1 and f1, the queen on h1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from e1 to g1.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
The pawn on d2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 203.
The engine's main line opens with e4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Morozov Balance Index: 61 of 100 — class B — balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +23 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #657Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 013 · SP-657
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