Winning blow: queen to d8 (e7·4)
c9-14065naming 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 e2, queen e7, bishop b7, knight e5, pawn c2 h2 d3 f4.
Black: king h8, knight f5 d6, pawn d4 e6 g6 d7.
8 white and 7 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 30.
Solution & explanation
Main line
30. Qd8+ Kh7 31. Qxd7+ Kh8 32. Ba6
Why it works
- Best move. queen to d8 is exactly what the engine plays (#8).
- Spot on — queen to d7 (#7).
- A natural move: bishop to a6.
- You win decisive material (+15.0).
- If instead Kh7, then Qxd7+ 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 #495.
SP-495 · ThroneGuard — Both knights start on inner files (b–g) while the king sits centrally on d or e — one of 204 positions filed here.
The king starts on d1, the rooks on b1 and f1, the queen on a1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from d1 to g1.
A bishop starts in the corner on h1: it has a single diagonal, which the g-pawn unlocks, running out to a8.
The pawn on d2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 560.
The engine's main line opens with f4.
Morozov Balance Index: 72 of 100 — class B — balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +20 centipawns for White (depth 49, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #495Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 014 · SP-495
Similar puzzles
Free, no ads · Android 8.0+ · coming soon to Google Play