Chess960 tactic on g5 (e4)
c9-12858naming 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.
Mate: a forcing sequence that ends the game — the king has no escape.
Mate in 4: a forced checkmate in four moves — every reply is covered.
Difficulty 2120 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
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 is a forced mating attack. Start from the enemy king: which of its squares are already covered, and which move takes away the rest while keeping the king in check? Forcing moves — checks and captures — are what turn an attack into mate.
A mate in four is a longer forced net: each of your moves is a check or an irresistible threat, and the king is driven step by step to a square where it is finally trapped. Verify that the defender has exactly one reply at every branch.
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 h2, queen e8, rook g1, bishop b2 c2, knight e4, pawn a2 d2 f3 c4 h4.
Black: king h7, queen f5, knight g6, pawn d4 c5 h5 a7 f7 g7.
11 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 29.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 10 points of material (28 against 18; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on h2, the black king on h7.
It is White to move on move 29, with 51 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: g.
White hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The White king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
29. Ng5+ Qxg5 30. Rxg5 Kh6 31. Qxf7 Nxh4 32. Qxg7#
Why it works
- Great move! knight to g5 keeps the pressure (#3).
- Spot on — rook to g5 (#2).
- Precise: queen to f7 is the top choice (#1).
- Best move. queen to g7 is exactly what the engine plays (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 4.
- If instead Qxg5, then Rxg5 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 29. Ng5+ — knight to g5 with check
- Qxg5 — queen to g5 (capture)
- 30. Rxg5 — rook to g5 (capture)
- Kh6 — king to h6
- 31. Qxf7 — queen to f7 (capture)
- Nxh4 — knight to h4 (capture)
- 32. Qxg7# — queen to g7 (capture) and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Supported queen mate
The queen delivers mate face to face, protected by a friend.
The supported queen mate is the most common pattern of all: the queen lands next to the king and mates because a friendly piece or pawn protects her. The king is helpless — capturing is impossible, and the queen covers every neighboring square herself. Hunt for a protected square beside the enemy king: a knight, bishop or pawn eyeing it turns her invasion into mate. Verify one thing — that the square really is defended, or the king eats her.
Mate in 4+
A long forced mating combination.
Mate in four or longer is a marathon of forcing moves where the grip must never loosen. The tools are the same: checks, double threats and sacrifices that deny the opponent a single free tempo. Do not juggle the whole tree at once — walk the main line all the way to mate first, then verify the side branches. If somewhere the defender finds one quiet move that holds, your very first move was wrong.
Absolute pin
A piece is pinned against its king — it cannot legally move.
An absolute pin freezes a piece on the line between its own king and your long-range attacker: moving it is simply illegal. The pattern is three units on one straight line — your bishop, rook or queen, an enemy piece, and the enemy king behind it. A pinned piece neither attacks nor defends anything: treat it as if it were off the board. Pile up on it, ideally with a pawn, because running away is against the rules.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #401.
SP-401 · RampartGuard — A wing king (b/g) with no knight on the a- or h-file.
The king starts on g1, the rooks on b1 and h1, the queen on c1.
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: a2.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 747.
The engine's main line opens with b4.
Morozov Balance Index: 96 of 100 — class A — most balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: -7 centipawns for White (depth 41, 400 000 000 nodes).
In 50 self-play games White scored 49.0% (95% CI 35.7–62.4%).
Explore position #401Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 015 · SP-401
Similar puzzles
In your browser or in the Android app. Nothing to install · Free, no ads