Winning blow: pawn to g5 (f4·8)
c9-14880naming 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 g1, queen e1, rook b6, bishop d4 e6, knight b1 f5, pawn c2 g2 f4 e5 a6.
Black: king h7, rook f8, bishop a8, knight e4, pawn d5 g5.
12 white and 6 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 36.
Solution & explanation
Main line
36. fxg5 Nf2 37. g6+ Kxg6 38. Qxf2
Why it works
- Best move. pawn to g5 is exactly what the engine plays (#5).
- Spot on — pawn to g6 (#5).
- Precise: queen to f2 is the top choice (#4).
- You win a piece — the knight.
- If instead Nf2, then Qxf2 and you win the knight.
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 #114.
SP-114 · RampartGuard — King on the wing (b/g) with both knights on inner files.
The king starts on g1, the rooks on d1 and h1, the queen on c1.
The king already stands on its castled square, so castling short moves only the rook, from h1 to f1.
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: a2.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 839.
The engine's main line opens with d4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Morozov Balance Index: 93 of 100 — class A — most balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +11 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #114Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 014 · SP-114
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