Winning blow: knight to f4 (h5·3)
c9-22912naming 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 1250 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 f1, rook c1, bishop d4, knight h5, pawn a2 g2 h2 e3 b4 e5.
Black: king g8, queen d5, rook c8, bishop a8, knight c4, pawn b6 g6 a7 d7 e7 g7.
11 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 20.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 26 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on g1, the black king on g8.
It is White to move on move 20, with 39 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: d.
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
20. Nf4 Qf7 21. e6 dxe6 22. Rxc4
Why it works
- Great move! knight to f4 keeps the pressure (+3.7).
- Well found: pawn to e6 (+4.1).
- Strong! rook to c4 is the sharp choice (+4.0).
- You reach a winning position (+4.0).
- If instead Qf7, then e6 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 20. Nf4 — knight to f4
- Qf7 — queen to f7
- 21. e6 — pawn to e6
- dxe6 — pawn to e6 (capture)
- 22. Rxc4 — rook to c4 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Interference
A piece lands between defender and defended, cutting the connection.
Interference means planting a piece between the defender and what it defends, cutting the wire. Often it is a sacrifice: the piece lands on a square where it can be taken, yet two enemy defensive lines cross exactly there. Look for that intersection point — the square shared by two of the opponent's lines of defense. The intruder can be captured, but whichever piece takes it abandons its own duty.
Quiet move
No check, no capture — yet this modest move decides the game.
A quiet move gives no check and takes nothing — yet it decides the game by creating an unstoppable threat or stealing the king's last square. This is the hardest class of moves: the eye hunts for loud blows while a modest shift does the winning. The clue: every forcing try runs into a defense, so seek the move that strengthens the threat or takes squares away. Train yourself to ask: what if I neither capture nor check, but quietly improve?
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #608.
SP-608 · BastionScout — The king starts one file off-centre, on c or f, and a knight begins in a corner.
The king starts on f1, the rooks on c1 and g1, the queen on e1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 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: h2.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 255.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Morozov Balance Index: 2 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +53 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #608Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 009 · SP-608
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