Winning blow: queen to e5 (e4·7)
c9-23467naming 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 1390 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 e1, queen e4, rook c7 g7, bishop f1, pawn d2 f2 e3 f3 a4 h4.
Black: king f8, queen a8, rook b6 h8, knight b7 e7, pawn f5 e6 h7.
11 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 24.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 28 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on e1, the black king on f8.
It is White to move on move 24, with 48 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 3. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, c, g — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
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
24. Qe5 Rb1+ 25. Ke2 Qa6+ 26. d3 Re1+ 27. Kxe1
Why it works
- Great move! queen to e5 keeps the pressure (+9.6).
- Well found: king to e2 (#13).
- Strong! pawn to d3 is the sharp choice (#12).
- Great move! king to e1 keeps the pressure (#10).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Rb1+, then Ke2 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 24. Qe5 — queen to e5
- Rb1+ — rook to b1 with check
- 25. Ke2 — king to e2
- Qa6+ — queen to a6 with check
- 26. d3 — pawn to d3
- Re1+ — rook to e1 with check
- 27. Kxe1 — king to e1 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
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 #482.
SP-482 · 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 e1, the rooks on c1 and h1, the queen on b1.
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.
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 d2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 567.
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 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #482Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 010 · SP-482
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