Winning blow: queen to c4 (c5)
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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 b1, queen c5, rook f1 b7, bishop e3, pawn b2 c3 e4.
Black: king e6, queen h4, rook h7 d8, bishop e5, pawn a6 c6 d7.
8 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 30.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 25 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on b1, the black king on e6.
It is White to move on move 30, with 49 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 3 pawns, Black 3. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): f, g, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: a, d.
The White king has 4 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
30. Qc4+ Ke7 31. Bc5+ Bd6 32. Qd4 Qe1+ 33. Rxe1
Why it works
- Great move! queen to c4 keeps the pressure (#10).
- Well found: bishop to c5 (#9).
- Strong! queen to d4 is the sharp choice (#8).
- Great move! rook to e1 keeps the pressure (#7).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Ke7, then Bc5+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 30. Qc4+ — queen to c4 with check
- Ke7 — king to e7
- 31. Bc5+ — bishop to c5 with check
- Bd6 — bishop to d6
- 32. Qd4 — queen to d4
- Qe1+ — queen to e1 with check
- 33. Rxe1 — rook to e1 (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.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #364.
SP-364 · ThroneScout — A knight starts on the edge (a/h) and the king sits centrally on d or e; the mirror twin stays in this family too.
The king starts on d1, the rooks on c1 and e1, the queen on f1.
Castling long simply swaps the two pieces: the king on d1 and the rook on c1 trade places.
The bishops stand on b1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a7 once the c- and f-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: b2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 316.
The engine's main line opens with f4.
Morozov Balance Index: 55 of 100 — class B — balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +25 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #364Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-364
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