Mate in 2: knight to c6 (e7·2)
c9-23665naming 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.
Mate in 2: the first move creates an unstoppable threat, the second delivers mate.
Difficulty 1220 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.
Mate in two usually opens with a forcing move — a check, a capture or an unstoppable threat — that strips the king of squares or defenders, so the follow-up mate becomes unavoidable. Look for the first move that leaves the opponent only losing replies.
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 f1, queen h4, rook b1, bishop c3 d3, knight e7, pawn a2 c2 e5.
Black: king d8, rook a8, bishop e8, knight c4 c6, pawn a5 e6 b7 c7 d7 f7.
9 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 25.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 6 points of material (26 against 20; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on f1, the black king on d8.
It is White to move on move 25, with 53 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 3 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): g, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: b, d, f.
White 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
25. Nxc6+ Kc8 26. Qd8#
Why it works
- Great move! knight to c6 keeps the pressure (#1).
- Spot on — queen to d8 (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 2.
- If instead Kc8, then Qd8# and it is mate.
Move by move
- 25. Nxc6+ — knight to c6 (capture) with check
- Kc8 — king to c8
- 26. Qd8# — queen to d8 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Anastasia's mate
Knight and rook trap the king against the edge of the board.
Anastasia's mate is a knight-and-rook duet at the edge of the board. The knight steals the king's escape squares while the rook mates along the edge file or rank. The textbook picture: a knight on e7 covers g8 and g6, the king's own pawn on g7 blocks the third exit, the king sits on h7 — and the rook mates down the h-file. Watch for it whenever the enemy king hugs the edge; a queen sacrifice on the edge file often clears the way for the rook.
Mate in 2
A forced checkmate in two moves.
Mate in two: your move, any reply, then the mating blow. Start with the most forcing first moves — checks and sacrifices that shrink the opponent's options to almost nothing. Against every single reply you must have a mate ready, so check them all without exception. The common failure is analyzing the pretty defense and forgetting the boring one.
Back-rank mate
The king is locked behind its own pawns — a heavy piece strikes the last rank.
The back-rank mate strikes a king locked behind its own unmoved pawns when a rook or queen crashes onto the last rank. The signs: no escape hole in front of the king, and the back rank guarded by a single piece or by nobody at all. Often that lone guard is deflected or traded off first, and only then comes the invasion. In your own games, make luft in time — one pawn move prevents a sudden catastrophe.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #90.
SP-90 · ThroneScout — King on a central file (d/e) with a knight starting on the rim (a/h).
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.
The bishops stand on e1 and f1; their long diagonals reach a5 and a6 once the d- and e-pawns step aside.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: a2, b2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 869.
The engine's main line opens with g4.
Morozov Balance Index: 34 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +31 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #90Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-90
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