Winning blow: rook to e7 (h7·3)
c9-18134naming 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 f1, queen d2, rook h7, knight b1, pawn a2 c2 f2 b3.
Black: king d8, queen e7, rook g8, bishop b6 a8, pawn f3 a7 b7 d7.
8 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 20.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 3 points of material (21 against 24; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on f1, the black king on d8.
It is White to move on move 20, with 33 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e, g, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: d.
Black hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The White king has 0 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
20. Rxe7 Kxe7 21. Qb4+ Ke6 22. Qe4+ Kf6 23. Qxf3+
Why it works
- Great move! rook to e7 keeps the pressure (+5.1).
- Spot on — queen to b4 (+5.1).
- Precise: queen to e4 is the top choice (+5.3).
- Best move. queen to f3 is exactly what the engine plays (+5.3).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Kxe7, then Qb4+ and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 20. Rxe7 — rook to e7 (capture)
- Kxe7 — king to e7 (capture)
- 21. Qb4+ — queen to b4 with check
- Ke6 — king to e6
- 22. Qe4+ — queen to e4 with check
- Kf6 — king to f6
- 23. Qxf3+ — queen to f3 (capture) with check
Types in this puzzle
Decoy
A sacrifice lures the king or a piece onto a fatal square.
A decoy is the mirror image of deflection: you sacrifice to drag the king or a piece onto a fatal square. The classic is a queen or rook sac whose capture pulls the king into a knight fork, a discovered check or mate. Find the square where the target will be hit, then find the offer it cannot refuse. Calculate to the very end — a decoy only works when the follow-up is forced.
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 #81.
SP-81 · BastionGuard — King shifted to c or f, knights kept clear of the edges — 168 positions in all.
The king starts on f1, the rooks on e1 and g1, the queen on h1.
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 pawn on f2 is defended by the king alone — the classic soft spot of the standard setup.
The setup belongs to the BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 875.
The engine's main line opens with g4.
Morozov Balance Index: 24 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +35 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #81Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-81
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