Winning blow: rook to h8 (h1·7)
c9-22651naming 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 f1, queen c3, rook d1 h1, bishop e1, knight g1 b3, pawn a2 b2 e2 f2 g2 d4.
Black: king g7, queen c8, rook d8 h8, bishop b8, knight d6 g8, pawn a5 e5 b6 c6 f6 g6.
13 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 14.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 34 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on f1, the black king on g7.
It is White to move on move 14, with 43 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: c.
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
14. Rxh8 Kxh8 15. dxe5 Nf7 16. Rxd8 Qxd8 17. exf6
Why it works
- Great move! rook to h8 keeps the pressure (+3.2).
- Well found: pawn to e5 (+3.2).
- Strong! rook to d8 is the sharp choice (+3.1).
- Best move. pawn to f6 is exactly what the engine plays (+3.2).
- You reach a winning position (+3.2).
- If instead Kxh8, then dxe5 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 14. Rxh8 — rook to h8 (capture)
- Kxh8 — king to h8 (capture)
- 15. dxe5 — pawn to e5 (capture)
- Nf7 — knight to f7
- 16. Rxd8 — rook to d8 (capture)
- Qxd8 — queen to d8 (capture)
- 17. exf6 — pawn to f6 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Absolute pin
A piece is pinned against its king — it cannot legally move.
An absolute pin freezes a piece on the line between its own king and your long-range attacker: moving it is simply illegal. The pattern is three units on one straight line — your bishop, rook or queen, an enemy piece, and the enemy king behind it. A pinned piece neither attacks nor defends anything: treat it as if it were off the board. Pile up on it, ideally with a pawn, because running away is against the rules.
Overload
One defender guards two things — it cannot do both jobs.
Overloading exploits a defender with two jobs at once — guarding a piece and covering a mating square, for instance. It cannot do both: your first strike forces it to handle one duty and abandon the other. Find the overworked piece by asking what happens to each of its charges if it gets distracted. Then hit one target and collect the other — an overloaded defender only pretends to defend.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #216.
SP-216 · BastionScout — King off-centre on c or f with a knight starting on the rim (a/h).
The king starts on f1, the rooks on d1 and h1, the queen on c1.
The queenside rook already stands on d1, so castling long moves only the king, from f1 to c1.
The bishops stand on b1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a5 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
The pawn on g2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 653.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Morozov Balance Index: 31 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +32 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #216Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-216
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