Winning blow: queen to a8 (d5)
c9-22044naming 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 h1, queen d5, pawn a2 b2 e2 g2 h2 f3.
Black: king c8, queen f8, rook h6, bishop b6, knight d6, pawn e5 g5 h5.
8 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 27.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 8 points of material (15 against 23; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on h1, the black king on c8.
It is White to move on move 27, with 29 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 3. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c, d — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
The White king has 0 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
27. Qa8+ Kc7 28. Qxf8 Rh7 29. Qf6 Rd7 30. Qxe5
Why it works
- Great move! queen to a8 keeps the pressure (+2.3).
- Well found: queen to f8 (+1.9).
- A natural move: queen to f6.
- Best move. queen to e5 is exactly what the engine plays (+2.4).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Kc7, then Qxf8 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 27. Qa8+ — queen to a8 with check
- Kc7 — king to c7
- 28. Qxf8 — queen to f8 (capture)
- Rh7 — rook to h7
- 29. Qf6 — queen to f6
- Rd7 — rook to d7
- 30. Qxe5 — queen to e5 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Skewer
A line attack forces the valuable piece to move, exposing the one behind it.
A skewer is a pin turned inside out: the valuable piece stands in front and something cheaper hides behind it. The big piece must step aside, and you collect the one that was sheltering in its shadow. Scan for the enemy king or queen sharing a file, rank or diagonal with another enemy piece. The deadliest version comes with check — the king moves, the rook behind it dies.
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 #252.
SP-252 · ThroneScout — King on a central file (d/e) with a knight starting on the rim (a/h).
The king starts on d1, the rooks on c1 and h1, the queen on e1.
Castling long simply swaps the two pieces: the king on d1 and the rook on c1 trade places.
The bishops stand on b1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a7 once the c- and f-pawns step aside.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: b2, g2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 620.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Morozov Balance Index: 26 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +34 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #252Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-252
Similar puzzles
In your browser or in the Android app. Nothing to install · Free, no ads