Winning blow: rook to f8 (f1·8)
c9-22700naming 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 d1, rook b1 f1, bishop g3, knight c1 b4, pawn a2 d2 g2 h2 a3 e5.
Black: king c8, queen c5, rook e4 f8, bishop b8, knight d4, pawn c6 g6 d7 e7 h7.
12 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 28.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 5 points of material (25 against 30; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on d1, the black king on c8.
It is White to move on move 28, with 30 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, f — 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
28. Rxf8+ Kb7 29. Nbd3+ Qb5 30. Nc5+ Ka7 31. Rxb5
Why it works
- Great move! rook to f8 keeps the pressure (+8.2).
- Well found: knight to d3 (+8.4).
- Precise: knight to c5 is the top choice (+8.4).
- Great move! rook to b5 keeps the pressure (+8.6).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Kb7, then Nbd3+ and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 28. Rxf8+ — rook to f8 (capture) with check
- Kb7 — king to b7
- 29. Nbd3+ — knight to d3 with check
- Qb5 — queen to b5
- 30. Nc5+ — knight to c5 with check
- Ka7 — king to a7
- 31. Rxb5 — rook to b5 (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.
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.
Discovered check
The moving piece opens a check — and is free to grab anything meanwhile.
With a discovered check the moving piece unmasks a check from the piece standing behind it. While the king deals with the check, the piece that moved grabs whatever it likes, free of charge. Look for your long-range piece on a line with the enemy king, with exactly one of your own pieces in between. The rule: among all the ways to step aside, pick the one that captures or attacks the most expensive loot.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #556.
SP-556 · ThroneGuard — A centre-file king with no knight on the edge; a position and its mirror twin always share this family.
The king starts on d1, the rooks on a1 and h1, the queen on f1.
Castling ends where it always does: king to g1 and rook to f1 on the short side, king to c1 and rook to d1 on the long one.
The bishops stand on b1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a7 once the c- and f-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: b2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 508.
The engine's main line opens with e4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Morozov Balance Index: 77 of 100 — class A — most balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +21 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
In 50 self-play games White scored 52.0% (95% CI 38.5–65.2%).
Explore position #556Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-556
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