Winning blow: rook to h7 (g7·4)
c9-23760naming 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 g1, rook g7, bishop c3, knight f1, pawn b2 g2 e3 a4 c4 f4.
Black: king f8, queen c8, bishop c7, knight h7, pawn c5 h5 c6 g6 a7.
10 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 31.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 3 points of material (17 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 g1, the black king on f8.
It is White to move on move 31, with 27 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: h.
The White king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
31. Rxh7 Bd8 32. Rh8+ Kf7 33. Ba5 Qa6 34. Bxd8
Why it works
- Best move. rook to h7 is exactly what the engine plays (+0.2).
- Well found: rook to h8 (+3.5).
- A natural move: bishop to a5.
- Great move! bishop to d8 keeps the pressure (+3.5).
- You win a piece — the bishop.
- If instead Bd8, then Rh8+ and you win the knight.
Move by move
- 31. Rxh7 — rook to h7 (capture)
- Bd8 — bishop to d8
- 32. Rh8+ — rook to h8 with check
- Kf7 — king to f7
- 33. Ba5 — bishop to a5
- Qa6 — queen to a6
- 34. Bxd8 — bishop to d8 (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.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #425.
SP-425 · RampartGuard — A wing king (b/g) with no knight on the a- or h-file.
The king starts on g1, the rooks on a1 and h1, the queen on c1.
The king already stands on its castled square, so castling short moves only the rook, from h1 to f1.
The bishops stand on d1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h5 and a5 once the e- and d-pawns step aside.
The pawn on g2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 729.
The engine's main line opens with d4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Morozov Balance Index: 14 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +40 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #425Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-425
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