Winning blow: pawn to b7 (c6·9)
c9-20828naming 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 1200 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 h1, rook b3 a8, bishop d1, pawn b2 e3 g3 e4 c6.
Black: king g8, queen c7, rook b7 h7, knight f8, pawn h2 c5 e5 f7 g7.
9 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 28.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 9 points of material (18 against 27; 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 g8.
It is White to move on move 28, with 27 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): a, d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: f, h.
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
28. cxb7 Qd6 29. Rxf8+ Kxf8 30. b8=Q+ Qxb8 31. Rxb8+
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to b7 keeps the pressure (+5.3).
- Spot on — rook to f8 (+3.6).
- Precise: pawn to b8 is the top choice (+3.8).
- Great move! rook to b8 keeps the pressure (+3.6).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Qd6, then Rxf8+ and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 28. cxb7 — pawn to b7 (capture)
- Qd6 — queen to d6
- 29. Rxf8+ — rook to f8 (capture) with check
- Kxf8 — king to f8 (capture)
- 30. b8=Q+ — pawn to b8 with check
- Qxb8 — queen to b8 (capture)
- 31. Rxb8+ — rook to b8 (capture) with check
Types in this puzzle
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.
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.
Remove the defender
Capture the guard first — then take what it protected.
Removing the defender is the straightforward plan: capture the guard first, then take what it guarded. Unlike deflection, the defender is not lured away — it is traded off or destroyed on the spot. Stare at the target you crave and ask who defends it, and whether that defender can be profitably eaten. Count the whole capture sequence, not just the first move — the trade must pay off at the end.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #424.
SP-424 · RampartGuard — Both knights begin on inner files while the king sits on the wing (b/g); mirror twins stay together in this family.
The king starts on g1, the rooks on a1 and h1, the queen on d1.
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 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 RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 733.
The engine's main line opens with e4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Morozov Balance Index: 42 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +23 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
In 50 self-play games White scored 56.0% (95% CI 42.3–68.8%).
Explore position #424Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-424
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