Winning blow: knight to d2 (f1·3)
c9-24274naming 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 g2, queen f3, rook h1, bishop a3, knight f1 e4, pawn c2 f2 b3 g3 h4 a5.
Black: king g7, queen e1, rook b8 h8, bishop d8, knight f6, pawn e5 h5 g6 a7 b7 c7 f7.
12 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 19.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 3 points of material (29 against 32; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g2, the black king on g7.
It is White to move on move 19, with 37 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 7. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: e.
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
19. Nfd2 Nxe4 20. Rxe1 Nxd2 21. Qe3 Bf6 22. Qxd2
Why it works
- Great move! knight to d2 keeps the pressure (+4.5).
- Well found: rook to e1 (+4.5).
- A natural move: queen to e3.
- Best move. queen to d2 is exactly what the engine plays (+4.6).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Nxe4, then Rxe1 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 19. Nfd2 — knight to d2
- Nxe4 — knight to e4 (capture)
- 20. Rxe1 — rook to e1 (capture)
- Nxd2 — knight to d2 (capture)
- 21. Qe3 — queen to e3
- Bf6 — bishop to f6
- 22. Qxd2 — queen to d2 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Discovered attack
A piece steps aside and opens a second attack from the piece behind it.
A discovered attack works like a curtain: one piece steps off the line and unveils the long-range piece behind it. The beauty is that the moving piece can create a second threat of its own — two attacks in one move. Look for your stacked pairs: a bishop or rook behind a knight or pawn, aimed through them at something valuable. Send the front piece to the most aggressive square — a discovery without a second threat wastes half its power.
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.
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 #421.
SP-421 · RampartGuard — The king starts out on a wing file, b or g, with neither knight in a corner.
The king starts on g1, the rooks on a1 and h1, the queen on e1.
The king already stands on its castled square, so castling short moves only the rook, from h1 to f1.
The bishops stand on c1 and d1; their long diagonals reach h6 and h5 once the d- and e-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 730.
The engine's main line opens with e4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Morozov Balance Index: 89 of 100 — class A — most balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +14 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #421Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 010 · SP-421
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