Winning blow: pawn to g6 (h5·4)
c9-17607naming 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 1200 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 g1, rook c1 h4, knight e5, pawn e2 f2 d3 g3 b4 h5.
Black: king h7, queen b7, rook e8 g8, bishop c8, pawn d5 a6 g6 h6 g7.
10 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 23.
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 g1, the black king on h7.
It is White to move on move 23, with 39 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): c — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: a.
The White king has 4 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
23. hxg6+ Kh8 24. Nf7+ Qxf7 25. gxf7 Rd8 26. fxg8=Q+
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to g6 keeps the pressure (+5.3).
- Well found: knight to f7 (+5.4).
- Strong! pawn to f7 is the sharp choice (+5.3).
- Best move. pawn to g8 is exactly what the engine plays (+5.5).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Kh8, then Nf7+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 23. hxg6+ — pawn to g6 (capture) with check
- Kh8 — king to h8
- 24. Nf7+ — knight to f7 with check
- Qxf7 — queen to f7 (capture)
- 25. gxf7 — pawn to f7 (capture)
- Rd8 — rook to d8
- 26. fxg8=Q+ — pawn to g8 (capture) with check
Types in this puzzle
Pawn fork
A humble pawn steps forward and attacks two pieces at once.
A pawn fork is a single pawn step that attacks two pieces at once. Since the pawn is the cheapest unit on the board, the trade is always a bargain — the opponent saves only one of the two targets. The pattern: two enemy pieces on the same rank, one file apart, with a square for your pawn between them. Before parking your pieces near enemy pawns, always ask whether one little push forks them both.
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.
Counter-strike
Don't defend — answer the threat with a bigger one.
The counter-strike: instead of defending against the threat, you answer with a bigger threat of your own. While your opponent grabs a pawn, you deliver mate — the arithmetic favors you. Look for a counter when direct defenses fail: do you have a check, an attack on the queen, a mating threat? The beginner's error is meeting every threat with a reflexive defense without checking the counterattacking resources first.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #4.
SP-4 · RampartGuard — Both knights begin on inner files while the king sits on the wing (b/g); mirror twins stay together in this family.
The king starts on g1, the rooks on f1 and h1, the queen on a1.
The king already stands on its castled square, so castling short moves only the rook, from h1 to f1.
The bishops stand on b1 and c1; their long diagonals reach h7 and h6 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: e2.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 958.
The engine's main line opens with h4.
Morozov Balance Index: 18 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +38 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #4Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-4
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