Winning blow: king to c2 (d1·22)
c9-21143naming tag (square·N)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 2060 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
White to move — find the best continuation
Position on the board
White: king d1, queen e7, rook b1 f2, bishop h1, knight a5, pawn h3 a4 c4 f5 d7.
Black: king c7, rook b8, bishop h5 h6, pawn e5 a6 b6 f6 h7.
11 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 25.
Solution & explanation
Main line
25. Kc2 Rd8 26. Qe6 Bf3 27. Bxf3
Why it works
- Sensible development: king to c2.
- queen to e6 develops smoothly.
- Precise: bishop to f3 is the top choice (#3).
- You win a piece — the bishop.
- If instead Rd8, then Qe6 and you stay on top.
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 #591.
SP-591 · ThroneGuard — Both knights start on inner files (b–g) while the king sits centrally on d or e — one of 204 positions filed here.
The king starts on d1, the rooks on b1 and e1, the queen on a1.
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.
A bishop starts in the corner on h1: it has a single diagonal, which the g-pawn unlocks, running out to a8.
The pawn on c2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 272.
The engine's main line opens with b4.
Morozov Balance Index: 2 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +54 centipawns for White (depth 41, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #591Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 015 · SP-591
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