Winning blow: pawn to c4 (b3·6)
c9-24614naming 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 f1 c2, bishop e3 d5, knight h6, pawn a2 e2 h2 b3 g4.
Black: king d8, rook a6 d7, bishop g8 h8, knight e5, pawn c4 g6 a7 f7 h7.
11 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 24.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 24 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on d1, the black king on d8.
It is White to move on move 24, with 37 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: c, f.
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
24. bxc4 Nxc4 25. Rxc4 Rxd5+ 26. Ke1 f5 27. Nxg8
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to c4 keeps the pressure (+3.5).
- Well found: rook to c4 (+3.7).
- Strong! king to e1 is the sharp choice (+3.7).
- Best move. knight to g8 is exactly what the engine plays (+4.1).
- You win a piece — the bishop.
- If instead Nxc4, then Rxc4 and you win the knight.
Move by move
- 24. bxc4 — pawn to c4 (capture)
- Nxc4 — knight to c4 (capture)
- 25. Rxc4 — rook to c4 (capture)
- Rxd5+ — rook to d5 (capture) with check
- 26. Ke1 — king to e1
- f5 — pawn to f5
- 27. Nxg8 — knight to g8 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Winning exchange
A forced series of captures on one square ends in your favour.
A winning exchange is a forced series of captures on one square that leaves you ahead in material. It is pure arithmetic: count the attackers and defenders of the square and note the value of every piece in the queue. Capture in the right order — cheap pieces first, expensive ones later — or a winning trade turns into a losing one. The classic error is stopping the count halfway and missing the opponent's final recapture.
Counter-strike
Don't defend — answer the threat with a bigger one.
The counter-strike: instead of defending against the threat, you answer with a bigger threat of your own. While your opponent grabs a pawn, you deliver mate — the arithmetic favors you. Look for a counter when direct defenses fail: do you have a check, an attack on the queen, a mating threat? The beginner's error is meeting every threat with a reflexive defense without checking the counterattacking resources first.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #303.
SP-303 · ThroneGuard — Both knights start on inner files (b–g) while the king sits centrally on d or e — one of 204 positions filed here.
The king starts on d1, the rooks on c1 and e1, the queen on a1.
Castling long simply swaps the two pieces: the king on d1 and the rook on c1 trade places.
A bishop starts in the corner on h1: it has a single diagonal, which the g-pawn unlocks, running out to a8.
Every pawn on the second rank is defended from the very first move.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 368.
The engine's main line opens with f4.
Morozov Balance Index: 8 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +45 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #303Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-303
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