Winning blow: rook to e6 (e1·5)
c9-19164naming tag (square·N)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 1010 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
White to move — find the best continuation
Position on the board
White: king g1, queen b8, rook e1 f1, pawn d2 g2 c3 a4 b4 g4 g6.
Black: king d8, queen g7, rook h8, bishop c8, knight e6, pawn c4 a5 f5 c6 h6.
11 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 27.
Solution & explanation
Main line
27. Rxe6 Qd7 28. Qb6+ Qc7 29. Qd4+
Why it works
- Great move! rook to e6 keeps the pressure (+10.1).
- Well found: queen to b6 (#14).
- Strong! queen to d4 is the sharp choice (#11).
- You win a piece — the knight.
- If instead Qa7+, then Qxa7 and you win the queen.
Types in this puzzle
Winning blow
Find the strike that wins material by force.
A winning blow is a forced material gain that does not fit a single textbook motif. The general tactical recipe applies: spot loose pieces, an awkwardly placed king, overloaded lines. Go through the forcing moves in order of violence — checks, captures, threats — because most combinations start with one of them. Do not judge by feel: calculate the concrete line until the outcome is beyond doubt.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #248.
SP-248 · ThroneScout — The king starts on d or e while at least one knight begins in a corner.
The king starts on d1, the rooks on c1 and h1, the queen on f1.
Castling long simply swaps the two pieces: the king on d1 and the rook on c1 trade places.
The bishops stand on b1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a5 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: b2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 621.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Morozov Balance Index: 31 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +32 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #248Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 006 · SP-248
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