Mate in 2: queen to g6 (e4·4)
c9-13369naming 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 in 2: the first move creates an unstoppable threat, the second delivers mate.
Difficulty 1320 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.
Mate in two usually opens with a forcing move — a check, a capture or an unstoppable threat — that strips the king of squares or defenders, so the follow-up mate becomes unavoidable. Look for the first move that leaves the opponent only losing replies.
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, queen e4, rook c1 f1, bishop e1 c2, knight b3 h6, pawn a2 b2 d2 g2 h2 g3 c4.
Black: king e8, rook c7 h8, bishop d8, knight a8, pawn a5 c5 g5 b7 d7 e7 h7.
15 white and 12 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 12.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 15 points of material (38 against 23; 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 e8.
It is White to move on move 12, with 48 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 7. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): f — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: e.
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
12. Qg6+ hxg6 13. Bxg6#
Why it works
- Great move! queen to g6 keeps the pressure (#1).
- Well found: bishop to g6 (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 2.
- If instead hxg6, then Bxg6# and it is mate.
Move by move
- 12. Qg6+ — queen to g6 with check
- hxg6 — pawn to g6 (capture)
- 13. Bxg6# — bishop to g6 (capture) and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Mate in 2
A forced checkmate in two moves.
Mate in two: your move, any reply, then the mating blow. Start with the most forcing first moves — checks and sacrifices that shrink the opponent's options to almost nothing. Against every single reply you must have a mate ready, so check them all without exception. The common failure is analyzing the pretty defense and forgetting the boring one.
Sacrifice attack
Give up material to unleash a decisive attack.
A sacrificial attack gives up material on purpose to rip the king's shelter open and launch a decisive assault. The sac is sound when you get concrete assets in return: open lines to the king, tempi, pieces ready to pour in. The signs: a poorly sheltered king, your forces aimed at its home, defenders stranded far away. The iron rule is to calculate, not hope — once the material is gone, there is no way back.
Clearance
Clear your own piece out of the way — with tempo — for the decisive blow.
Clearance is about your own piece standing in the way of the decisive blow — so you move it aside, or even throw it away. The key is to clear with tempo: jump off with a check, a capture or a threat, giving the opponent no time to regroup. The telltale sign: you see a crushing queen or rook move, but one of your own pieces blocks the line or occupies the square. Do not cling to it — a clearance sacrifice usually costs less than a missed attack.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #217.
SP-217 · BastionScout — A c- or f-file king with at least one knight out on the edge.
The king starts on f1, the rooks on c1 and h1, the queen on b1.
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.
The bishops stand on d1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h5 and a5 once the e- and d-pawns step aside.
The pawn on g2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 649.
The engine's main line opens with b4.
Morozov Balance Index: 100 of 100 — class A — most balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +3 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
In 50 self-play games White scored 50.0% (95% CI 36.6–63.4%).
Explore position #217Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 010 · SP-217
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