Attack on the uncastled king: bishop to f4 (c1·30)
c9-22673naming 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.
Uncastled king: the enemy king is stuck in the centre — punish it before it castles.
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.
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.
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 g2, queen e6, rook d1 h1, bishop c1 b3, knight c5, pawn a2 b2 f2 h3 c4 g4.
Black: king g8, queen f7, rook c8 h8, bishop b8, knight f4 b6, pawn h4 f5 c6 a7 b7 g7.
13 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 21.
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 g2, the black king on g8.
It is White to move on move 21, with 5 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle. White are in check right now, so every reply must answer the check.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d, e — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
White hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. 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
21. Bxf4 Bxf4 22. gxf5 Re8 23. Qxf7+ Kxf7 24. Nxb7
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to f4 keeps the pressure (+3.2).
- Spot on — pawn to f5 (+3.4).
- Precise: queen to f7 is the top choice (+3.4).
- Best move. knight to b7 is exactly what the engine plays (+3.5).
- You reach a winning position (+3.5).
- If instead Bxf4, then gxf5 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 21. Bxf4 — bishop to f4 (capture)
- Bxf4 — bishop to f4 (capture)
- 22. gxf5 — pawn to f5 (capture)
- Re8 — rook to e8
- 23. Qxf7+ — queen to f7 (capture) with check
- Kxf7 — king to f7 (capture)
- 24. Nxb7 — knight to b7 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Win the pinned piece
The pinned piece cannot run — attack it again and win it.
A pinned piece cannot flee, which means you can win it outright by attacking it one more time. Count attackers against defenders: if you outnumber them, the piece is yours. The best extra attacker is a pawn, since it costs less than anything it might capture. Do not rush the capture — build up the pressure first, then harvest.
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 #20.
SP-20 · RampartScout — The king starts on b or g while a knight begins on the a- or h-file — the smallest family.
The king starts on g1, the rooks on f1 and h1, the queen on d1.
The king already stands on its castled square, so castling short moves only the rook, from h1 to f1.
The bishops stand on b1 and c1; their long diagonals reach h7 and h6 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
Every pawn on the second rank is defended from the very first move.
The setup belongs to the RampartScout family; read right to left it becomes position 942.
The engine's main line opens with d4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Morozov Balance Index: 69 of 100 — class B — balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +21 centipawns for White (depth 51, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #20Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-20
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