Winning blow: pawn to f4 (e3·9)
c9-22903naming 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 e2, queen a5, rook c1 g1, bishop a1 c4, knight h2, pawn d2 a3 e3 h3 b4 g5.
Black: king e8, queen h7, rook c8 g8, bishop c6 b8, knight f4, pawn h4 c5 f5 g6 a7 d7 e7.
13 white and 14 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 24.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 1 points of material (34 against 35; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on e2, the black king on e8.
It is White to move on move 24, 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 7. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for White: c, f.
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
24. exf4 Bxf4 25. Nf3 Qh5 26. Rgf1 e5 27. Bxe5
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to f4 keeps the pressure (+2.0).
- knight to f3 develops smoothly.
- Precise: rook to f1 is the top choice (+2.5).
- Best move. bishop to e5 is exactly what the engine plays (+2.9).
- You win a piece — the knight.
- If instead Bxf4, then Nf3 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 24. exf4 — pawn to f4 (capture)
- Bxf4 — bishop to f4 (capture)
- 25. Nf3 — knight to f3
- Qh5 — queen to h5
- 26. Rgf1 — rook to f1
- e5 — pawn to e5
- 27. Bxe5 — bishop to e5 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
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.
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.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #752.
SP-752 · ThroneGuard — The king starts in the middle of the back rank, on d or e, and neither knight begins in a corner.
The king starts on d1, the rooks on c1 and g1, the queen on h1.
Castling long simply swaps the two pieces: the king on d1 and the rook on c1 trade places.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: f2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 399.
The engine's main line opens with g4.
Morozov Balance Index: 8 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +45 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #752Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-752
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