Winning blow: pawn to g6 (f5·6)
c9-17336naming 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 1060 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 a1, rook e1 f1, bishop d2 d3, pawn b2 c4 f5.
Black: king g8, queen g6, rook f8, bishop h1 c5, pawn a2 d4 a5 e5 h5 d6 g7.
8 white and 12 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 37.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 8 points of material (19 against 27; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on a1, the black king on g8.
It is White to move on move 37, with 29 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 3 pawns, Black 7. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for White: a, d, e, g, 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
37. fxg6 Bg2 38. Rxf8+ Kxf8 39. Bxa5
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to g6 keeps the pressure (+4.0).
- Spot on — rook to f8 (+5.0).
- Precise: bishop to a5 is the top choice (+3.7).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Bg2, then Rxf8+ and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 37. fxg6 — pawn to g6 (capture)
- Bg2 — bishop to g2
- 38. Rxf8+ — rook to f8 (capture) with check
- Kxf8 — king to f8 (capture)
- 39. Bxa5 — bishop to a5 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Discovered attack
A piece steps aside and opens a second attack from the piece behind it.
A discovered attack works like a curtain: one piece steps off the line and unveils the long-range piece behind it. The beauty is that the moving piece can create a second threat of its own — two attacks in one move. Look for your stacked pairs: a bishop or rook behind a knight or pawn, aimed through them at something valuable. Send the front piece to the most aggressive square — a discovery without a second threat wastes half its power.
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.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #630.
SP-630 · ThroneScout — King on a central file (d/e) with a knight starting on the rim (a/h).
The king starts on d1, the rooks on a1 and g1, the queen on e1.
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.
The bishops stand on c1 and f1; their long diagonals reach h6 and a6 once the d- and e-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: h2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 230.
The engine's main line opens with d4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Morozov Balance Index: 3 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +51 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #630Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 006 · SP-630
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