Winning blow: rook to f8 (c8·3)
c9-24594naming 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 d1, rook c8, bishop d4, pawn d2 h4 b7.
Black: king h6, rook e5 f8, bishop g3, pawn b6 g6 e7 h7.
6 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 39.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 6 points of material (11 against 17; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on d1, the black king on h6.
It is White to move on move 39, with 29 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 3 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, c, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: e, g.
The White king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
39. Rxf8 Rf5 40. b8=R Bxb8 41. Rxb8 Kh5 42. Rxb6
Why it works
- Great move! rook to f8 keeps the pressure (+2.5).
- pawn to b8 develops smoothly.
- Precise: rook to b8 is the top choice (+2.5).
- Best move. rook to b6 is exactly what the engine plays (+2.6).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Rf5, then b8=R and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 39. Rxf8 — rook to f8 (capture)
- Rf5 — rook to f5
- 40. b8=R — pawn to b8
- Bxb8 — bishop to b8 (capture)
- 41. Rxb8 — rook to b8 (capture)
- Kh5 — king to h5
- 42. Rxb6 — rook to b6 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Clearance
Clear your own piece out of the way — with tempo — for the decisive blow.
Clearance is about your own piece standing in the way of the decisive blow — so you move it aside, or even throw it away. The key is to clear with tempo: jump off with a check, a capture or a threat, giving the opponent no time to regroup. The telltale sign: you see a crushing queen or rook move, but one of your own pieces blocks the line or occupies the square. Do not cling to it — a clearance sacrifice usually costs less than a missed attack.
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.
Promotion race
Both sides push passers — win the race by a tempo.
A promotion race is a sprint between two passed pawns: both sides push toward the last rank, and victory goes to whoever queens first or queens with check. You will recognize it when both players have far-advanced passers that neither king can catch. Count the tempi literally, move by move, all the way to promotion. The classic mistake is spending a tempo on a "useful" move — in a race, almost any non-pawn move loses.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #360.
SP-360 · 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 f1, the queen on g1.
Castling long simply swaps the two pieces: the king on d1 and the rook on c1 trade places.
The bishops stand on b1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a5 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: b2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 317.
The engine's main line opens with f4.
Morozov Balance Index: 14 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +40 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #360Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-360
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