Winning blow: pawn to f5 (g4·8)
c9-19518naming 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 920 ShuffleRating — for beginners taking their first steps in Chess960 tactics.
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 h1, queen f2, rook c1 f1, bishop b1, pawn a2 b2 h2 f4 g4.
Black: king g6, queen d6, rook f8, bishop c8, knight b6 e6, pawn d5 f5 h6 a7 b7.
10 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 22.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 1 points of material (27 against 28; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on h1, the black king on g6.
It is White to move on move 22, with 39 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c, e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: d.
The White king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
22. gxf5+ Kf7 23. fxe6+
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to f5 keeps the pressure (+4.0).
- Well found: pawn to e6 (+4.3).
- You win a piece — the knight.
- If instead Kf7, then fxe6+ and you win the knight.
Move by move
- 22. gxf5+ — pawn to f5 (capture) with check
- Kf7 — king to f7
- 23. fxe6+ — pawn to e6 (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.
Win the pinned piece
The pinned piece cannot run — attack it again and win it.
A pinned piece cannot flee, which means you can win it outright by attacking it one more time. Count attackers against defenders: if you outnumber them, the piece is yours. The best extra attacker is a pawn, since it costs less than anything it might capture. Do not rush the capture — build up the pressure first, then harvest.
Check chase
Every move is a check — the king is chased into losing ground.
In a check chase every one of your moves is a check, so the opponent never gets a free second. The king is herded across the board until it loses a piece or walks into a decisive blow. Such lines are the easiest to calculate: each check allows only a handful of replies, so try them all. Make it a habit to start calculating any sharp position with the checks — they are the most forcing moves on the board.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #148.
SP-148 · RampartScout — A knight in the corner and the king out on the wing (b/g); like every family, it is closed under mirror twins.
The king starts on g1, the rooks on d1 and h1, the queen on f1.
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.
Every pawn on the second rank is defended from the very first move.
The setup belongs to the RampartScout family; read right to left it becomes position 814.
The engine's main line opens with e4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Morozov Balance Index: 13 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +41 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #148Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 005 · SP-148
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