Winning blow: queen to d2 (d4·2)
c9-22014naming 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 1430 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 c1, queen d4, rook f1 a3, bishop a4, knight g1, pawn c2 e2 g2 g3 b4 c5 e5.
Black: king c8, queen h6, rook d8 f8, bishop a6, knight d2 h8, pawn d5 h5 a7 b7 f7 g7.
13 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 17.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 2 points of material (32 against 34; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on c1, the black king on c8.
It is White to move on move 17, with 45 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 6. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for White: a, d, f, h.
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
17. Qxd2 Bc4 18. Qxh6 gxh6 19. Rf6 Rg8 20. Rxh6
Why it works
- Great move! queen to d2 keeps the pressure (+2.4).
- A brilliant blow: queen to h6, and you stand better (+2.5).
- A natural move: rook to f6.
- Best move. rook to h6 is exactly what the engine plays (+2.5).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Bc4, then Qxh6 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 17. Qxd2 — queen to d2 (capture)
- Bc4 — bishop to c4
- 18. Qxh6 — queen to h6 (capture)
- gxh6 — pawn to h6 (capture)
- 19. Rf6 — rook to f6
- Rg8 — rook to g8
- 20. Rxh6 — rook to h6 (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.
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 #904.
SP-904 · BastionScout — A knight on the a- or h-file, king on c or f — the mirror twin lands here as well.
The king starts on c1, the rooks on a1 and f1, the queen on d1.
The king already stands on c1, so castling long moves only the rook, from a1 to d1.
The bishops stand on b1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a5 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: g2, h2.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 61.
The engine's main line opens with f4.
Morozov Balance Index: 47 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +27 centipawns for White (depth 41, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #904Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 010 · SP-904
Similar puzzles
In your browser or in the Android app. Nothing to install · Free, no ads