Winning blow: pawn to e4 (d3·12)
c9-20876naming 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 g1, rook c1 f1, bishop b2 e2, knight c2, pawn a2 b3 d3 e3 f4 g4 h4.
Black: king g8, rook c8 d8, bishop e4 c7, knight b6 d7, pawn c5 e5 a7 b7 g7 h7.
13 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 20.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 2 points of material (26 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 g1, the black king on g8.
It is White to move on move 20, with 31 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 6. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for White: c.
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
20. dxe4 c4 21. g5 Nc5 22. Bg4 exf4 23. Bxc8
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to e4 keeps the pressure (+2.1).
- Spot on — pawn to g5 (+1.7).
- A natural move: bishop to g4.
- Brilliant! The bishop on c8 is a sacrifice that works — you stand better (+2.6).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead c4, then g5 and you win the bishop.
Move by move
- 20. dxe4 — pawn to e4 (capture)
- c4 — pawn to c4
- 21. g5 — pawn to g5
- Nc5 — knight to c5
- 22. Bg4 — bishop to g4
- exf4 — pawn to f4 (capture)
- 23. Bxc8 — bishop to c8 (capture)
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.
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.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #73.
SP-73 · BastionScout — A c- or f-file king with at least one knight out on the edge.
The king starts on f1, the rooks on c1 and h1, the queen on g1.
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.
The bishops stand on d1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h5 and a5 once the e- and d-pawns step aside.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: a2, b2.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 889.
The engine's main line opens with b4.
Morozov Balance Index: 34 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +31 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #73Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-73
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