Chess960 tactic on e1 (f1)
c9-14689naming 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: a forcing sequence that ends the game — the king has no escape.
Mate in 4: a forced checkmate in four moves — every reply is covered.
Difficulty 2400 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
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 is a forced mating attack. Start from the enemy king: which of its squares are already covered, and which move takes away the rest while keeping the king in check? Forcing moves — checks and captures — are what turn an attack into mate.
A mate in four is a longer forced net: each of your moves is a check or an irresistible threat, and the king is driven step by step to a square where it is finally trapped. Verify that the defender has exactly one reply at every branch.
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 g2, rook f1 f7, bishop c3, knight f5, pawn f4 h4 d5.
Black: king d8, rook a8, knight c4, pawn c5 h5 d6 a7.
8 white and 7 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 29.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 7 points of material (19 against 12; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g2, the black king on d8.
It is White to move on move 29, with 43 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 3 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, e, g — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: a, c.
The White king has 7 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
29. Re1 Ne5 30. Ba5+ Kc8 31. Nxd6+ Kb8 32. Rb7#
Why it works
- Great move! rook to e1 keeps the pressure (#3).
- Spot on — bishop to a5 (#2).
- Precise: knight to d6 is the top choice (#1).
- Best move. rook to b7 is exactly what the engine plays (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 4.
- If instead Ne5, then Ba5+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 29. Re1 — rook to e1
- Ne5 — knight to e5
- 30. Ba5+ — bishop to a5 with check
- Kc8 — king to c8
- 31. Nxd6+ — knight to d6 (capture) with check
- Kb8 — king to b8
- 32. Rb7# — rook to b7 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Mate in 4+
A long forced mating combination.
Mate in four or longer is a marathon of forcing moves where the grip must never loosen. The tools are the same: checks, double threats and sacrifices that deny the opponent a single free tempo. Do not juggle the whole tree at once — walk the main line all the way to mate first, then verify the side branches. If somewhere the defender finds one quiet move that holds, your very first move was wrong.
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 #236.
SP-236 · ThroneScout — The king starts on d or e while at least one knight begins in a corner.
The king starts on e1, the rooks on c1 and h1, the queen on d1.
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 b1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a7 once the c- and f-pawns step aside.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: b2, g2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 636.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Morozov Balance Index: 16 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +39 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #236Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 015 · SP-236
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