Winning blow: queen to h6 (e3)
c9-21437naming 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 h2, queen e3, bishop a1, pawn d2 f3 c4 h4 f5 f6.
Black: king g8, queen a5, rook b1, bishop d5, pawn e5 d6 c7 f7 h7.
9 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 27.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 4 points of material (18 against 22; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on h2, the black king on g8.
It is White to move on move 27, with 30 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, b, g — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: e.
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
27. Qh6 Rg1 28. Kxg1 Qa7+ 29. Kg2 Bxf3+ 30. Kxf3
Why it works
- Great move! queen to h6 keeps the pressure (+5.5).
- Spot on — king to g1 (+6.0).
- Precise: king to g2 is the top choice (+6.3).
- Great move! king to f3 keeps the pressure (+6.3).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Rg1, then Kxg1 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 27. Qh6 — queen to h6
- Rg1 — rook to g1
- 28. Kxg1 — king to g1 (capture)
- Qa7+ — queen to a7 with check
- 29. Kg2 — king to g2
- Bxf3+ — bishop to f3 (capture) with check
- 30. Kxf3 — king to f3 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
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?
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 #801.
SP-801 · BastionScout — Off-centre king plus a rim knight (a/h): 168 positions carry this shape.
The king starts on c1, the rooks on b1 and g1, the queen on e1.
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.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: a2.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 155.
The engine's main line opens with f4.
Morozov Balance Index: 96 of 100 — class A — most balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +11 centipawns for White (depth 42, 400 000 000 nodes).
In 50 self-play games White scored 51.0% (95% CI 37.6–64.3%).
Explore position #801Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 010 · SP-801
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