Winning blow: rook to f1 (e1·8)
c9-13895naming tag (square·N)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 1870 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
White to move — find the best continuation
Position on the board
White: king h1, queen d6, rook e1, pawn a2 g2 h2 d4 e4.
Black: king f7, rook e7, pawn g5 a6 h6.
8 white and 5 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 29.
Solution & explanation
Main line
29. Rf1+ Ke8 30. Qc6+ Rd7 31. Qc8+
Why it works
- Best move. rook to f1 is exactly what the engine plays (#3).
- Spot on — queen to c6 (#3).
- Precise: queen to c8 is the top choice (#2).
- You win decisive material (+15.0).
- If instead Ke8, then Rf6 and you stay on top.
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.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #512.
SP-512 · BastionGuard — A c- or f-file king and two knights on inner files (b–g).
The king starts on f1, the rooks on c1 and h1, the queen on e1.
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.
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 BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 543.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Morozov Balance Index: 83 of 100 — class A — most balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +16 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #512Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 014 · SP-512
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