Winning blow: pawn to g4 (g3·11)
c9-14343naming 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.
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
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 position hides a concrete tactic that wins material or mates. Start with the most forcing candidate moves — checks, captures and threats — and calculate each to a clear end before choosing; the winning line is usually the one the opponent cannot meet.
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 b1, queen d4, rook c1 e2, bishop b2, knight g5, pawn b3 d3 g3 f4 h4.
Black: king f5, queen g7, rook e8, bishop b8, knight c5, pawn h5 d6 g6.
11 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 27.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 7 points of material (30 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 b1, the black king on f5.
It is White to move on move 27, with 49 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 3. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, c, e — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
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
27. g4+ hxg4 28. Qxg7 g3 29. Rxc5+
Why it works
- Best move. pawn to g4 is exactly what the engine plays (#5).
- Spot on — queen to g7 (#5).
- Precise: rook to c5 is the top choice (#4).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead hxg4, then Rxe8 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 27. g4+ — pawn to g4 with check
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.
Counter-strike
Don't defend — answer the threat with a bigger one.
The counter-strike: instead of defending against the threat, you answer with a bigger threat of your own. While your opponent grabs a pawn, you deliver mate — the arithmetic favors you. Look for a counter when direct defenses fail: do you have a check, an attack on the queen, a mating threat? The beginner's error is meeting every threat with a reflexive defense without checking the counterattacking resources first.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #80.
SP-80 · BastionGuard — A c- or f-file king and two knights on inner files (b–g).
The king starts on f1, the rooks on e1 and g1, the queen on h1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade places.
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: d2.
The setup belongs to the BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 879.
The engine's main line opens with g4.
Morozov Balance Index: 1 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +83 centipawns for White (depth 43, 400 000 000 nodes).
In 50 self-play games White scored 56.0% (95% CI 42.3–68.8%).
Explore position #80Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 014 · SP-80
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