Winning blow: rook to f7 (f1·27)
c9-19294naming 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 2060 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
White to move — find the best continuation
Position on the board
White: king c1, queen d7, rook d1 f1, knight c3, pawn a2 b2 c2 e2 d3 g4 h4.
Black: king b7, rook a8, pawn a4 g5 b6 c6 h6 c7.
12 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 21.
Solution & explanation
Main line
21. Rf7 Rc8 22. Ne4 b5 23. Nd6+
Why it works
- Sensible development: rook to f7.
- knight to e4 develops smoothly.
- Precise: knight to d6 is the top choice (#4).
- You win decisive material (+15.0).
- If instead Rc8, then Ne4 and you stay on top.
Types in this puzzle
Quiet move
No check, no capture — yet this modest move decides the game.
A quiet move gives no check and takes nothing — yet it decides the game by creating an unstoppable threat or stealing the king's last square. This is the hardest class of moves: the eye hunts for loud blows while a modest shift does the winning. The clue: every forcing try runs into a defense, so seek the move that strengthens the threat or takes squares away. Train yourself to ask: what if I neither capture nor check, but quietly improve?
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #459.
SP-459 · ThroneGuard — Both knights start on inner files (b–g) while the king sits centrally on d or e — one of 204 positions filed here.
The king starts on d1, the rooks on a1 and g1, the queen on f1.
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.
A bishop starts in the corner on h1: it has a single diagonal, which the g-pawn unlocks, running out to a8.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: b2, h2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 689.
The engine's main line opens with g4.
Morozov Balance Index: 31 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +32 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #459Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 015 · SP-459
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