Chess960 tactic on e4 (h1)
c9-14811naming 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 2250 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 e2, queen h1, rook f7, bishop b1, knight c2 d5, pawn a2 b2 d2 g3 h4 b5.
Black: king e8, rook g8, bishop c3, knight a8, pawn c5 h5 a6 g6 d7.
12 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 20.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 13 points of material (29 against 16; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on e2, the black king on e8.
It is White to move on move 20, with 53 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: 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
20. Qe4+ Kd8 21. Qe7+ Kc8 22. Qxd7+ Kb8 23. Qb7#
Why it works
- Great move! queen to e4 keeps the pressure (#3).
- Spot on — queen to e7 (#2).
- Precise: queen to d7 is the top choice (#1).
- Best move. queen to b7 is exactly what the engine plays (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 4.
- If instead Kd8, then Qe7+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 20. Qe4+ — queen to e4 with check
- Kd8 — king to d8
- 21. Qe7+ — queen to e7 with check
- Kc8 — king to c8
- 22. Qxd7+ — queen to d7 (capture) with check
- Kb8 — king to b8
- 23. Qb7# — queen to b7 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Supported queen mate
The queen delivers mate face to face, protected by a friend.
The supported queen mate is the most common pattern of all: the queen lands next to the king and mates because a friendly piece or pawn protects her. The king is helpless — capturing is impossible, and the queen covers every neighboring square herself. Hunt for a protected square beside the enemy king: a knight, bishop or pawn eyeing it turns her invasion into mate. Verify one thing — that the square really is defended, or the king eats her.
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.
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 #184.
SP-184 · BastionScout — A knight on the a- or h-file, king on c or f — the mirror twin lands here as well.
The king starts on f1, the rooks on c1 and g1, the queen on h1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade places.
The bishops stand on b1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a5 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
The pawn on e2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 781.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Morozov Balance Index: 28 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +33 centipawns for White (depth 49, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #184Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 015 · SP-184
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