Winning blow: queen to b5 (f1·5)
c9-20174naming 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 1390 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 c1, queen f1, rook b3, knight e5, pawn c2 d2 h2 a3 g3 c5.
Black: king c8, queen f5, rook d8, bishop b7, pawn f4 e6 a7 c7 d7 g7.
10 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 23.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 23 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on c1, the black king on c8.
It is White to move on move 23, with 45 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: e, f.
The White king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
23. Qb5 Qe4 24. c6 Qe1+ 25. Kb2 Qxe5+ 26. Qxe5
Why it works
- Great move! queen to b5 keeps the pressure (+6.2).
- Well found: pawn to c6 (+6.5).
- A natural move: king to b2.
- Great move! queen to e5 keeps the pressure (+6.7).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Qe4, then c6 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 23. Qb5 — queen to b5
- Qe4 — queen to e4
- 24. c6 — pawn to c6
- Qe1+ — queen to e1 with check
- 25. Kb2 — king to b2
- Qxe5+ — queen to e5 (capture) with check
- 26. Qxe5 — queen to e5 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Clearance
Clear your own piece out of the way — with tempo — for the decisive blow.
Clearance is about your own piece standing in the way of the decisive blow — so you move it aside, or even throw it away. The key is to clear with tempo: jump off with a check, a capture or a threat, giving the opponent no time to regroup. The telltale sign: you see a crushing queen or rook move, but one of your own pieces blocks the line or occupies the square. Do not cling to it — a clearance sacrifice usually costs less than a missed attack.
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 #913.
SP-913 · BastionScout — A c- or f-file king with at least one knight out on the edge.
The king starts on c1, the rooks on b1 and e1, the queen on f1.
The king already stands on c1, so castling long moves only the rook, from b1 to d1.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: a2, h2.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 43.
The engine's main line opens with e4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Morozov Balance Index: 69 of 100 — class B — balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +21 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #913Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 010 · SP-913
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