Winning blow: queen to g5 (g4·2)
c9-16016naming 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.
A fork made possible by the Chess960 piece placement.
Winning tactic: there is a move that gains a decisive advantage — find it.
Difficulty 1290 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.
A set-up fork needs one preparing move before the fork lands — a check that drives the king onto the forking square, or a capture that lines the targets up. Find the preparation first, then the fork it makes possible.
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 e2, queen g4, bishop b2, pawn a2 b4 d4 f4.
Black: king g6, queen f6, rook g5, pawn e3 c4 d5 a6 c6.
7 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 38.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 3 points of material (16 against 19; 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 g6.
It is White to move on move 38, with 26 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): g, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: c, 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
38. Qxg5+ Qxg5 39. fxg5 Kxg5 40. Kxe3
Why it works
- Great move! queen to g5 keeps the pressure (+4.3).
- Well found: pawn to g5 (+4.5).
- Precise: king to e3 is the top choice (+4.9).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Qxg5, then fxg5 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 38. Qxg5+ — queen to g5 (capture) with check
- Qxg5 — queen to g5 (capture)
- 39. fxg5 — pawn to g5 (capture)
- Kxg5 — king to g5 (capture)
- 40. Kxe3 — king to e3 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Setup fork
The random setup allows a fork that classical chess never sees.
A setup fork is a double attack that exists only because of the unusual starting squares — in classical chess these targets never stand side by side. Look for pairs of undefended pieces on your opponent's back rank and for squares from which a knight or pawn hits both at once. Such forks usually appear within the first moves, before the pieces disperse. In every new position, note right away which starting pieces are defended by no one.
Only move
Everything else loses — find the only move that holds.
An only move is a position where everything loses except one single continuation. You cannot play "by hand" here: run through fundamentally different defenses — run away, block, trade, counterattack — and discard the ones that fail. The hallmark of these puzzles is that the obvious moves lose quickly while the solution often looks strange. First understand exactly what the threat is — then the one saving move reveals itself.
Win the pinned piece
The pinned piece cannot run — attack it again and win it.
A pinned piece cannot flee, which means you can win it outright by attacking it one more time. Count attackers against defenders: if you outnumber them, the piece is yours. The best extra attacker is a pawn, since it costs less than anything it might capture. Do not rush the capture — build up the pressure first, then harvest.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #768.
SP-768 · ThroneScout — King on a central file (d/e) with a knight starting on the rim (a/h).
The king starts on e1, the rooks on d1 and g1, the queen on c1.
The queenside rook already stands on d1, so castling long moves only the king, from e1 to c1.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
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 ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 191.
The engine's main line opens with d4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Morozov Balance Index: 9 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +44 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #768Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 009 · SP-768
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