Attack on the uncastled king: rook to d6 (d1·5)
c9-16758naming tag (square·N)The tactical motive
Chess960 twist: use the unusual starting setup of the pieces.
Uncastled king: the enemy king is stuck in the centre — punish it before it castles.
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 c1, queen b2, rook d1 e1, bishop g2 a7, pawn c2 h2 b4 g4 a5.
Black: king d8, rook b8 e8, bishop g8 h8, pawn c4 f4 d6 g7 h7.
11 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 22.
Solution & explanation
Main line
22. Rxd6+ Kc7 23. Bxb8+ Kxb8 24. Rxe8+
Why it works
- Great move! rook to d6 keeps the pressure (#4).
- Spot on — bishop to b8 (#3).
- Precise: rook to e8 is the top choice (#2).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Kc7, then Bxb8+ and you win the rook.
Types in this puzzle
Hanging piece
A piece is left without protection — just take it.
A hanging piece is simply an unprotected piece you can take for free. It sounds primitive, yet most amateur games are decided exactly this way. Build the habit: before every move, sweep the board and note every undefended piece, yours and theirs. The classic mistake is hunting for a brilliant combination when all you need to do is bend down and pick up the gift.
Uncastled king
The king lingered in the middle — punish the delay.
Punishing the uncastled king: your opponent delayed castling, and now his king is stuck on its starting square under fire. In Chess960 this is deadlier than in classical chess — the king may start in the center or near the edge, and the familiar defensive setups simply do not apply. The signs: the victim still holds castling rights, and the files toward his king are half-open. Open lines before the king manages to hide.
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 #591.
SP-591 · ThroneGuard — Both knights start on inner files (b–g) while the king sits centrally on d or e — one of 204 positions filed here.
The king starts on d1, the rooks on b1 and e1, 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.
A bishop starts in the corner on h1: it has a single diagonal, which the g-pawn unlocks, running out to a8.
The pawn on c2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 272.
The engine's main line opens with b4.
Morozov Balance Index: 2 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +54 centipawns for White (depth 41, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #591Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 014 · SP-591
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