Winning blow: bishop to a5 (d2·4)
c9-15926naming 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 1110 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 g2, rook a1 a2, bishop d2, knight e2, pawn f2 d3 f3 g3 d4 h5.
Black: king h8, rook c7 d8, bishop f8, knight d5, pawn b5 e6 h6 f7 g7.
11 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 32.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 1 points of material (22 against 21; 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 h8.
It is White to move on move 32, with 35 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): a, c — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: b, e.
The White king has 5 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
32. Ba5 Bd6 33. Bxc7
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to a5 keeps the pressure (+3.7).
- Spot on — bishop to c7 (+3.7).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Bd6, then Bxc7 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 32. Ba5 — bishop to a5
- Bd6 — bishop to d6
- 33. Bxc7 — bishop to c7 (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 #200.
SP-200 · BastionGuard — A c- or f-file king and two knights on inner files (b–g).
The king starts on f1, the rooks on d1 and h1, the queen on a1.
The queenside rook already stands on d1, so castling long moves only the king, from f1 to c1.
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 g2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 669.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Morozov Balance Index: 13 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +41 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #200Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 007 · SP-200
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