Winning blow: knight to e3 (c4·2)
c9-21529naming 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 1250 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, queen a3, rook f1 h1, bishop b1, knight c4, pawn a2 f2 g2 c3 f3 b4 h4.
Black: king g7, queen d5, rook h6 f8, bishop b8, knight e6, pawn b5 h5 a7 c7 d7 e7 f7.
13 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 14.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 32 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on g1, the black king on g7.
It is White to move on move 14, with 29 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 7. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for White: d, e.
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
14. Ne3 Qc6 15. Nf5+ Kh8 16. Nxh6
Why it works
- Great move! knight to e3 keeps the pressure (+3.4).
- Spot on — knight to f5 (+4.1).
- Precise: knight to h6 is the top choice (+4.4).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Qc6, then Nf5+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 14. Ne3 — knight to e3
- Qc6 — queen to c6
- 15. Nf5+ — knight to f5 with check
- Kh8 — king to h8
- 16. Nxh6 — knight to h6 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Royal fork
A fork with check: the king must move, and the second piece is lost.
A royal fork is a fork with check — one of the two targets is the king itself. The check must be answered first, so nobody is left to rescue the second piece. Look for squares where your piece gives check and simultaneously attacks an undefended queen or rook. It is the most reliable fork of all, because your opponent literally has no choice.
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?
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #0.
SP-0 · RampartGuard — King on the wing (b/g) with both knights on inner files.
The king starts on g1, the rooks on f1 and h1, the queen on c1.
The king already stands on its castled square, so castling short moves only the rook, from h1 to f1.
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: e2.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 959.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Morozov Balance Index: 72 of 100 — class B — balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +20 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #0Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 009 · SP-0
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