Winning blow: pawn to a7 (a6·8)
c9-17322naming 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 c2, rook c7, bishop b2, pawn a6.
Black: king e8, rook a4, knight g5, pawn e5 f6.
4 white and 5 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 41.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 1 points of material (9 against 10; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on c2, the black king on e8.
It is White to move on move 41, with 26 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 1 pawns, Black 2. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, c, d, g, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: e, f.
The White king has 7 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
41. a7 Ne6 42. Rc8+ Kd7 43. a8=Q Rxa8 44. Rxa8
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to a7 keeps the pressure (+3.2).
- Spot on — rook to c8 (+3.2).
- A natural move: pawn to a8.
- Great move! rook to a8 keeps the pressure (+3.1).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Ne6, then Rc8+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 41. a7 — pawn to a7
- Ne6 — knight to e6
- 42. Rc8+ — rook to c8 with check
- Kd7 — king to d7
- 43. a8=Q — pawn to a8
- Rxa8 — rook to a8 (capture)
- 44. Rxa8 — rook to a8 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Promotion
The pawn reaches the last rank and becomes a queen — decisively.
Promotion turns a pawn on the last rank into a queen and rewrites the evaluation on the spot. In tactics the passer rarely walks in for free — usually a sacrifice clears its path. Count the tempi: how many moves does the pawn need, and can the defender stop it in time? And watch the promotion square itself — it must be out of enemy reach or won by force in your combination.
Promotion race
Both sides push passers — win the race by a tempo.
A promotion race is a sprint between two passed pawns: both sides push toward the last rank, and victory goes to whoever queens first or queens with check. You will recognize it when both players have far-advanced passers that neither king can catch. Count the tempi literally, move by move, all the way to promotion. The classic mistake is spending a tempo on a "useful" move — in a race, almost any non-pawn move loses.
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 #593.
SP-593 · BastionScout — King shifted to c or f, with a knight committed to the corner from move one.
The king starts on f1, the rooks on b1 and g1, the queen on c1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade places.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: a2, h2.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 267.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Morozov Balance Index: 99 of 100 — class A — most balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +2 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
In 50 self-play games White scored 49.0% (95% CI 35.7–62.4%).
Explore position #593Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 010 · SP-593
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