Winning blow: knight to b7 (c5·4)
c9-12783naming 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 g1, rook c1, bishop e2 d4, knight c5, pawn f2 g2 h2 a3 e3 e5.
Black: king e7, queen b7, rook c8 h8, knight d7, pawn a5 d5 c6 h6 f7 g7.
11 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 24.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 8 points of material (20 against 28; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g1, the black king on e7.
It is White to move on move 24, with 39 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): b — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: c, d.
White hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. 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
24. Nxb7 c5 25. Nd6 Rb8 26. Nf5+ Ke6 27. Nxg7+
Why it works
- Great move! knight to b7 keeps the pressure (+4.3).
- knight to d6 develops smoothly.
- Precise: knight to f5 is the top choice (+4.5).
- Best move. knight to g7 is exactly what the engine plays (+4.6).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead c5, then Nd6 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 24. Nxb7 — knight to b7 (capture)
- c5 — pawn to c5
- 25. Nd6 — knight to d6
- Rb8 — rook to b8
- 26. Nf5+ — knight to f5 with check
- Ke6 — king to e6
- 27. Nxg7+ — knight to g7 (capture) with check
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.
Only move
Everything else loses — find the only move that holds.
An only move is a position where everything loses except one single continuation. You cannot play "by hand" here: run through fundamentally different defenses — run away, block, trade, counterattack — and discard the ones that fail. The hallmark of these puzzles is that the obvious moves lose quickly while the solution often looks strange. First understand exactly what the threat is — then the one saving move reveals itself.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #226.
SP-226 · ThroneGuard — A centre-file king with no knight on the edge; a position and its mirror twin always share this family.
The king starts on e1, the rooks on c1 and h1, the queen on d1.
Castling ends where it always does: king to g1 and rook to f1 on the short side, king to c1 and rook to d1 on the long one.
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 ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 631.
The engine's main line opens with b4.
Morozov Balance Index: 97 of 100 — class A — most balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +6 centipawns for White (depth 50, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #226Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-226
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