Winning blow: pawn to d6 (d5·15)
c9-14062naming 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 2060 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
White to move — find the best continuation
Position on the board
White: king d1, queen c4, rook h1, bishop b1 f2, knight f6, pawn a2 d2 e2 b3 f4 h4 d5.
Black: king c8, bishop b8, knight c7, pawn f5 a6 g6 h6.
13 white and 7 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 31.
Solution & explanation
Main line
31. d6 a5 32. d7+ Kb7 33. Be4+
Why it works
- Sensible development: pawn to d6.
- Spot on — pawn to d7 (#3).
- Precise: bishop to e4 is the top choice (#3).
- You win decisive material (+15.0).
- If instead Kb7, then d7 and you stay on top.
Types in this puzzle
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 #248.
SP-248 · ThroneScout — The king starts on d or e while at least one knight begins in a corner.
The king starts on d1, the rooks on c1 and h1, the queen on f1.
Castling long simply swaps the two pieces: the king on d1 and the rook on c1 trade places.
The bishops stand on b1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a5 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: b2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 621.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Morozov Balance Index: 31 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +32 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #248Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 015 · SP-248
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