Winning blow: rook to a6 (a1·2)
c9-21532naming 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 d1, queen b4, rook a1, bishop g1 h1, knight e1, pawn e2 d3 g4.
Black: king c8, queen a6, rook d8, bishop f8 g8, knight e7 e8, pawn b3 e5 g6 b7 c7.
9 white and 12 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 18.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 5 points of material (26 against 31; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on d1, the black king on c8.
It is White to move on move 18, with 45 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 3 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, f, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: b, 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
18. Rxa6 bxa6 19. Bb7+ Kd7 20. Bc5 Nd6 21. Bxd6
Why it works
- Great move! rook to a6 keeps the pressure (+2.3).
- Spot on — bishop to b7 (+2.7).
- Precise: bishop to c5 is the top choice (+2.2).
- Best move. bishop to d6 is exactly what the engine plays (+2.6).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead bxa6, then Bb7+ and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 18. Rxa6 — rook to a6 (capture)
- bxa6 — pawn to a6 (capture)
- 19. Bb7+ — bishop to b7 with check
- Kd7 — king to d7
- 20. Bc5 — bishop to c5
- Nd6 — knight to d6
- 21. Bxd6 — bishop to d6 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Decoy
A sacrifice lures the king or a piece onto a fatal square.
A decoy is the mirror image of deflection: you sacrifice to drag the king or a piece onto a fatal square. The classic is a queen or rook sac whose capture pulls the king into a knight fork, a discovered check or mate. Find the square where the target will be hit, then find the offer it cannot refuse. Calculate to the very end — a decoy only works when the follow-up is forced.
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.
Remove the defender
Capture the guard first — then take what it protected.
Removing the defender is the straightforward plan: capture the guard first, then take what it guarded. Unlike deflection, the defender is not lured away — it is traded off or destroyed on the spot. Stare at the target you crave and ask who defends it, and whether that defender can be profitably eaten. Count the whole capture sequence, not just the first move — the trade must pay off at the end.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #495.
SP-495 · 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 f1, the queen on a1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from d1 to g1.
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 d2 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 560.
The engine's main line opens with f4.
Morozov Balance Index: 72 of 100 — class B — balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +20 centipawns for White (depth 49, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #495Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-495
Similar puzzles
In your browser or in the Android app. Nothing to install · Free, no ads