Winning blow: knight to c4 (a3)
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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 d2, queen e3, rook b1, bishop f3, knight c2 a3, pawn a2 e2 g3 d4 c5 e5.
Black: king g8, queen h2, rook d8 f8, bishop c8, knight c4, pawn d5 g6 a7 b7 f7 h7.
12 white and 12 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 18.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 2 points of material (29 against 31; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on d2, the black king on g8.
It is White to move on move 18, with 6 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. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for White: b, f, h.
The White king has 5 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
18. Nxc4 dxc4 19. Rh1 c3+ 20. Kxc3 Qxh1 21. Bxh1
Why it works
- Great move! knight to c4 keeps the pressure (+5.0).
- Well found: rook to h1 (+5.1).
- Precise: king to c3 is the top choice (+5.3).
- Great move! bishop to h1 keeps the pressure (+5.6).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead dxc4, then Rh1 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 18. Nxc4 — knight to c4 (capture)
- dxc4 — pawn to c4 (capture)
- 19. Rh1 — rook to h1
- c3+ — pawn to c3 with check
- 20. Kxc3 — king to c3 (capture)
- Qxh1 — queen to h1 (capture)
- 21. Bxh1 — bishop to h1 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Winning blow
Find the strike that wins material by force.
A winning blow is a forced material gain that does not fit a single textbook motif. The general tactical recipe applies: spot loose pieces, an awkwardly placed king, overloaded lines. Go through the forcing moves in order of violence — checks, captures, threats — because most combinations start with one of them. Do not judge by feel: calculate the concrete line until the outcome is beyond doubt.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #87.
SP-87 · ThroneScout — Centre-file king, rim knight: 204 of the 960 positions share this pattern.
The king starts on e1, the rooks on d1 and f1, the queen on g1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from e1 to g1.
A bishop starts in the corner on h1: it has a single diagonal, which the g-pawn unlocks, running out to a8.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: a2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 866.
The engine's main line opens with f4.
Morozov Balance Index: 55 of 100 — class B — balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +25 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #87Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-87
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