Winning blow: knight to e5 (d3·11)
c9-18545naming 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.
A fork made possible by the Chess960 piece placement.
Winning tactic: there is a move that gains a decisive advantage — find it.
Difficulty 1150 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.
A set-up fork needs one preparing move before the fork lands — a check that drives the king onto the forking square, or a capture that lines the targets up. Find the preparation first, then the fork it makes possible.
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 e1, queen c3, rook d1 g1, bishop f2, knight d3, pawn a2 d2 b3 g3 e4 b5.
Black: king f7, queen f3, rook a8 f8, bishop e6, knight d6, pawn c5 f6 g6 a7 d7 e7 g7.
12 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 13.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 1 points of material (31 against 32; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on e1, the black king on f7.
It is White to move on move 13, with 33 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 7. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: c, f.
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
13. Ne5+ fxe5 14. Qxf3+
Why it works
- Great move! knight to e5 keeps the pressure (+3.6).
- Well found: queen to f3 (+3.8).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead fxe5, then Qxf3+ and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 13. Ne5+ — knight to e5 with check
- fxe5 — pawn to e5 (capture)
- 14. Qxf3+ — queen to f3 (capture) with check
Types in this puzzle
Setup fork
The random setup allows a fork that classical chess never sees.
A setup fork is a double attack that exists only because of the unusual starting squares — in classical chess these targets never stand side by side. Look for pairs of undefended pieces on your opponent's back rank and for squares from which a knight or pawn hits both at once. Such forks usually appear within the first moves, before the pieces disperse. In every new position, note right away which starting pieces are defended by no one.
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.
Royal fork
A fork with check: the king must move, and the second piece is lost.
A royal fork is a fork with check — one of the two targets is the king itself. The check must be answered first, so nobody is left to rescue the second piece. Look for squares where your piece gives check and simultaneously attacks an undefended queen or rook. It is the most reliable fork of all, because your opponent literally has no choice.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #300.
SP-300 · ThroneScout — King on a central file (d/e) with a knight starting on the rim (a/h).
The king starts on e1, the rooks on d1 and f1, the queen on a1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from e1 to g1.
The bishops stand on b1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a7 once the c- and f-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: g2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 380.
The engine's main line opens with Ng3, bringing the knight out to g3.
Morozov Balance Index: 98 of 100 — class A — most balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: 0 centipawns for White (depth 49, 400 000 000 nodes).
In 50 self-play games White scored 53.0% (95% CI 39.5–66.1%).
Explore position #300Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 007 · SP-300
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