Winning blow: queen to a8 (h1·4)
c9-23937naming 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.
A piece strikes across the board from its Chess960 starting square.
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.
From some Chess960 setups a bishop or queen rakes a long diagonal straight from move one. Trace those long-range lines into the enemy camp: a single opened file or diagonal can create an immediate pin, skewer or mating threat.
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 c1, queen h1, rook e1, bishop d1 g1, knight f1, pawn b2 c2 d2 f2 h2 e3.
Black: king c7, queen h8, rook a8 e8, bishop d8 g8, knight f8, pawn g4 e5 a6 a7 g7 h7.
12 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 10.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 5 points of material (29 against 34; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on c1, the black king on c7.
It is White to move on move 10, with 24 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 6. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for White: a, g.
The White king has 1 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
10. Qxa8 Be6 11. Qxa7+ Kd6 12. f4 Nd7 13. fxe5+
Why it works
- Great move! queen to a8 keeps the pressure (+3.7).
- Spot on — queen to a7 (+3.7).
- Precise: pawn to f4 is the top choice (+3.7).
- Best move. pawn to e5 is exactly what the engine plays (+3.6).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Be6, then Qxa7+ and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 10. Qxa8 — queen to a8 (capture)
- Be6 — bishop to e6
- 11. Qxa7+ — queen to a7 (capture) with check
- Kd6 — king to d6
- 12. f4 — pawn to f4
- Nd7 — knight to d7
- 13. fxe5+ — pawn to e5 (capture) with check
Types in this puzzle
Long-range opener
From its unusual home square a long-range piece strikes across the board.
The long-range opener: a bishop, rook or queen strikes across the whole board straight from its starting area. In Chess960 the long-range pieces sit on unfamiliar squares, and a single pawn move can uncover a shot deep into the enemy camp. In the opening, trace with your eyes the diagonals and files of every long-range piece — yours and theirs. The mistake is pushing a pawn without checking whose line you have just opened.
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.
Remove the defender
Capture the guard first — then take what it protected.
Removing the defender is the straightforward plan: capture the guard first, then take what it guarded. Unlike deflection, the defender is not lured away — it is traded off or destroyed on the spot. Stare at the target you crave and ask who defends it, and whether that defender can be profitably eaten. Count the whole capture sequence, not just the first move — the trade must pay off at the end.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #669.
SP-669 · BastionGuard — King shifted to c or f, knights kept clear of the edges — 168 positions in all.
The king starts on c1, the rooks on a1 and e1, the queen on h1.
The king already stands on c1, so castling long moves only the rook, from a1 to d1.
The bishops stand on d1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h5 and a7 once the e- and f-pawns step aside.
The pawn on b2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 200.
The engine's main line opens with e4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Morozov Balance Index: 5 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +49 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #669Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-669
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