Winning blow: pawn to e5 (e4·7)
c9-15132naming 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 1390 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
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 g1, queen a1, rook f1, bishop c1 e2, knight g3, pawn c2 f2 g2 h2 d3 a4 e4.
Black: king d8, queen b8, rook h8, bishop f6 c8, knight e7, pawn f4 a5 c7 d7 f7 g7.
13 white and 12 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 13.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 1 points of material (30 against 29; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g1, the black king on d8.
It is White to move on move 13, with 30 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
The White king has 1 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
13. e5 Bxe5 14. Qxe5 fxg3 15. fxg3 f6 16. Qxa5
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to e5 keeps the pressure (+3.2).
- Well found: queen to e5 (+3.5).
- Precise: pawn to g3 is the top choice (+2.9).
- Best move. queen to a5 is exactly what the engine plays (+2.9).
- You reach a winning position (+2.9).
- If instead Bxe5, then Qxe5 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 13. e5 — pawn to e5
- Bxe5 — bishop to e5 (capture)
- 14. Qxe5 — queen to e5 (capture)
- fxg3 — pawn to g3 (capture)
- 15. fxg3 — pawn to g3 (capture)
- f6 — pawn to f6
- 16. Qxa5 — queen to a5 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
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 #677.
SP-677 · ThroneGuard — King home on d or e, knights kept off the a- and h-files — the family of the standard starting array.
The king starts on e1, the rooks on b1 and h1, the queen on a1.
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 c1 and d1; their long diagonals reach h6 and h5 once the d- and e-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: g2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 474.
The engine's main line opens with b4.
Morozov Balance Index: 59 of 100 — class B — balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +24 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #677Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 010 · SP-677
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