Winning blow: pawn to g5 (g4·9)
c9-15747naming 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 1890 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 c1, queen d6, rook e1, bishop h3, pawn b2 d2 a3 g4 d5.
Black: king g8, queen f7, rook f8, bishop f6, pawn c2 c4 b5 a7 g7 h7.
9 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 30.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 1 points of material (22 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 c1, the black king on g8.
It is White to move on move 30, with 37 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: c, h.
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
30. g5 Bxb2+ 31. Kxb2 Qf2 32. Be6+ Kh8 33. Kxc2
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to g5 keeps the pressure (+4.3).
- Well found: king to b2 (+4.9).
- Precise: bishop to e6 is the top choice (+4.7).
- Best move. king to c2 is exactly what the engine plays (+4.9).
- You win a piece — the bishop.
- If instead Bxb2+, then Kxb2 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 30. g5 — pawn to g5
- Bxb2+ — bishop to b2 (capture) with check
- 31. Kxb2 — king to b2 (capture)
- Qf2 — queen to f2
- 32. Be6+ — bishop to e6 with check
- Kh8 — king to h8
- 33. Kxc2 — king to c2 (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 #74.
SP-74 · ThroneScout — The king starts on d or e while at least one knight begins in a corner.
The king starts on d1, the rooks on c1 and h1, the queen on g1.
Castling long simply swaps the two pieces: the king on d1 and the rook on c1 trade places.
The bishops stand on e1 and f1; their long diagonals reach a5 and a6 once the d- and e-pawns step aside.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: a2, b2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 885.
The engine's main line opens with d4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Morozov Balance Index: 55 of 100 — class B — balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +25 centipawns for White (depth 49, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #74Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 014 · SP-74
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