Winning blow: rook to h8 (h7·5)
c9-22773naming 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 g1, queen e5, rook h7, bishop c3 f7, knight d6, pawn a2 d3 c4.
Black: king f8, queen g5, rook f6, bishop g2, knight f4 d7, pawn g4 c5 f5 e6 a7.
9 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 30.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 2 points of material (26 against 28; 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 f8.
It is White to move on move 30, with 42 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 3 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: e, f, g.
White hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The White king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
30. Rh8+ Kg7 31. Rg8+ Kh6 32. Qe1 e5 33. Rxg5
Why it works
- Great move! rook to h8 keeps the pressure (+3.9).
- Well found: rook to g8 (+4.2).
- A natural move: queen to e1.
- Best move. rook to g5 is exactly what the engine plays (+5.1).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Kg7, then Rg8+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 30. Rh8+ — rook to h8 with check
- Kg7 — king to g7
- 31. Rg8+ — rook to g8 with check
- Kh6 — king to h6
- 32. Qe1 — queen to e1
- e5 — pawn to e5
- 33. Rxg5 — rook to g5 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Discovered attack
A piece steps aside and opens a second attack from the piece behind it.
A discovered attack works like a curtain: one piece steps off the line and unveils the long-range piece behind it. The beauty is that the moving piece can create a second threat of its own — two attacks in one move. Look for your stacked pairs: a bishop or rook behind a knight or pawn, aimed through them at something valuable. Send the front piece to the most aggressive square — a discovery without a second threat wastes half its power.
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.
Queen trap
The strongest piece ventures too far — and cannot come back.
A queen trap catches the strongest piece after it ventures too far and finds no way home. The usual story is a queen grabbing a distant pawn — the classic poisoned pawn. The warning signs: the queen has few retreat squares, and enemy minor pieces cut them off one by one, gaining tempo with every move. Before your queen snacks on a pawn in enemy territory, count her escape routes — fewer than two means stay home.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #33.
SP-33 · RampartGuard — King pushed to the b- or g-file, knights off the edges — 144 positions here.
The king starts on g1, the rooks on f1 and h1, the queen on e1.
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.
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 RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 923.
The engine's main line opens with h4.
Morozov Balance Index: 16 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +39 centipawns for White (depth 43, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #33Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-33
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