Winning blow: knight to d6 (e4·11)
c9-21986naming 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 1290 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 e2, queen c4, rook b1 e1, bishop g2, knight e4, pawn c2 e3 g3 h5.
Black: king c8, queen a3, rook a2 d8, bishop d7, knight e5, pawn c7.
10 white and 7 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 26.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 3 points of material (29 against 26; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on e2, the black king on c8.
It is White to move on move 26, with 48 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 1. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, b, d, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
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
26. Nd6+ Qxd6 27. Bb7+ Kb8 28. Qxa2
Why it works
- Great move! knight to d6 keeps the pressure (#5).
- Well found: bishop to b7 (#4).
- Precise: queen to a2 is the top choice (+7.5).
- You win decisive material (+7.5).
- If instead Qxd6, then Bb7+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 26. Nd6+ — knight to d6 with check
- Qxd6 — queen to d6 (capture)
- 27. Bb7+ — bishop to b7 with check
- Kb8 — king to b8
- 28. Qxa2 — queen to a2 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Sacrifice attack
Give up material to unleash a decisive attack.
A sacrificial attack gives up material on purpose to rip the king's shelter open and launch a decisive assault. The sac is sound when you get concrete assets in return: open lines to the king, tempi, pieces ready to pour in. The signs: a poorly sheltered king, your forces aimed at its home, defenders stranded far away. The iron rule is to calculate, not hope — once the material is gone, there is no way back.
Counter-strike
Don't defend — answer the threat with a bigger one.
The counter-strike: instead of defending against the threat, you answer with a bigger threat of your own. While your opponent grabs a pawn, you deliver mate — the arithmetic favors you. Look for a counter when direct defenses fail: do you have a check, an attack on the queen, a mating threat? The beginner's error is meeting every threat with a reflexive defense without checking the counterattacking resources first.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #683.
SP-683 · BastionGuard — Off-centre king (c/f), no knight on the a- or h-file.
The king starts on c1, the rooks on b1 and g1, the queen on a1.
The king already stands on c1, so castling long moves only the rook, from b1 to d1.
A bishop starts in the corner on h1: it has a single diagonal, which the g-pawn unlocks, running out to a8.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: e2.
The setup belongs to the BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 465.
The engine's main line opens with b4.
Morozov Balance Index: 13 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +41 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #683Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 009 · SP-683
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