Winning blow: rook to a7 (a1·4)
c9-23560naming 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 f2, rook a1, bishop d3, knight c3 e3, pawn c2 d2 g2 h2 f3 e4 b5.
Black: king f7, rook h5 a7, bishop c5 e6, knight c7, pawn h3 e5 b6 f6 d7 g7.
12 white and 12 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 24.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 4 points of material (21 against 25; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on f2, the black king on f7.
It is White to move on move 24, with 31 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
Black hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The White king has 5 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
24. Rxa7 Bd6 25. g3 Rh8 26. Rb7 Ra8 27. Rxb6
Why it works
- Great move! rook to a7 keeps the pressure (+3.2).
- Spot on — pawn to g3 (+2.9).
- Precise: rook to b7 is the top choice (+2.6).
- Best move. rook to b6 is exactly what the engine plays (+2.7).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Bd6, then g3 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 24. Rxa7 — rook to a7 (capture)
- Bd6 — bishop to d6
- 25. g3 — pawn to g3
- Rh8 — rook to h8
- 26. Rb7 — rook to b7
- Ra8 — rook to a8
- 27. Rxb6 — rook to b6 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Winning blow
Find the strike that wins material by force.
A winning blow is a forced material gain that does not fit a single textbook motif. The general tactical recipe applies: spot loose pieces, an awkwardly placed king, overloaded lines. Go through the forcing moves in order of violence — checks, captures, threats — because most combinations start with one of them. Do not judge by feel: calculate the concrete line until the outcome is beyond doubt.
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 #398.
SP-398 · 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 b1 and h1, the queen on a1.
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 f1 and g1; their long diagonals reach a6 and a7 once the e- and f-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: c2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 756.
The engine's main line opens with e4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Morozov Balance Index: 51 of 100 — class B — balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +26 centipawns for White (depth 50, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #398Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-398
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