Attack on the uncastled king: knight to g4 (e5·3)
c9-22295naming 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.
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Uncastled king: the enemy king is stuck in the centre — punish it before it castles.
Difficulty 1980 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
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.
In a mate in three every move must be forcing; the defender should never get a free tempo. Find the check or threat that herds the king, calculate the single defence to each, and confirm the net closes on the third move.
An uncastled king in the centre is a standing target. Look for ways to open the central files and diagonals against it with checks and threats before it can shelter — every tempo the king spends in the middle is a chance for a combination.
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 g3, rook e1 h1, bishop a1 f1, knight e5, pawn a2 c2 d2 f2 g2 b4 h5.
Black: king g8, queen b7, rook e8 h8, bishop g4 f8, knight c4 d8, pawn b5 d5 h6 a7 c7 f7 h7.
14 white and 15 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 13.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 3 points of material (35 against 38; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g1, the black king on g8.
It is White to move on move 13, with 42 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 7. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
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
13. Nxg4 Be7 14. Nxh6+ Kf8 15. Qg7#
Why it works
- Best move. knight to g4 is exactly what the engine plays (#2).
- Spot on — knight to h6 (#1).
- Precise: queen to g7 is the top choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Be7, then Nxh6+ and you win the bishop.
Move by move
- 13. Nxg4 — knight to g4 (capture)
- Be7 — bishop to e7
- 14. Nxh6+ — knight to h6 (capture) with check
- Kf8 — king to f8
- 15. Qg7# — queen to g7 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Anastasia's mate
Knight and rook trap the king against the edge of the board.
Anastasia's mate is a knight-and-rook duet at the edge of the board. The knight steals the king's escape squares while the rook mates along the edge file or rank. The textbook picture: a knight on e7 covers g8 and g6, the king's own pawn on g7 blocks the third exit, the king sits on h7 — and the rook mates down the h-file. Watch for it whenever the enemy king hugs the edge; a queen sacrifice on the edge file often clears the way for the rook.
Mate in 3
A forced checkmate in three moves.
Mate in three is a forced staircase: each of your moves narrows the opponent's choices, and the third one ends the game. Look for the start among checks and sacrifices — quiet first moves are rare in mating problems, but deliciously sneaky. Keep the tree in your head: every defense gets its own branch. Do not stop calculating after move two — see the final mating picture with your own eyes.
Supported queen mate
The queen delivers mate face to face, protected by a friend.
The supported queen mate is the most common pattern of all: the queen lands next to the king and mates because a friendly piece or pawn protects her. The king is helpless — capturing is impossible, and the queen covers every neighboring square herself. Hunt for a protected square beside the enemy king: a knight, bishop or pawn eyeing it turns her invasion into mate. Verify one thing — that the square really is defended, or the king eats her.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #2.
SP-2 · RampartGuard — A b- or g-file king and two knights on inner files (b–g).
The king starts on g1, the rooks on e1 and h1, the queen on b1.
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: d2.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 951.
The engine's main line opens with h4.
Morozov Balance Index: 61 of 100 — class B — balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +23 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #2Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 014 · SP-2
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