Winning blow: knight to h6 (f5·10)
c9-24788naming 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 1340 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, queen c1, rook b1, bishop a1 g4, knight e1 f5, pawn b2 d2 f2 g2 e3 a4 c4.
Black: king h8, queen c8, rook b8, bishop f6 b7, knight g6 e8, pawn e5 b6 d6 a7 c7 f7 g7.
14 white and 14 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 10.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 33 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on g1, the black king on h8.
It is White to move on move 10, with 31 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 7. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): h — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
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
10. Nh6 gxh6 11. Bxc8
Why it works
- Great move! knight to h6 keeps the pressure (+3.9).
- Well found: bishop to c8 (+3.6).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead gxh6, then Bxc8 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 10. Nh6 — knight to h6
- gxh6 — pawn to h6 (capture)
- 11. Bxc8 — bishop to c8 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
First-rank tactic
Pieces still on their starting rank become targets of a first-rank strike.
The first-rank tactic: enemy pieces that never left their starting rank become targets themselves. Standing shoulder to shoulder, they block each other and are often defended by nobody. Look for a strike along the first or eighth rank — a rook or queen that breaks through harvests the undeveloped pieces. The mistake is treating the back rank as a safe "rear area": in Chess960 it can be the most vulnerable place on the board.
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.
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 #401.
SP-401 · RampartGuard — A wing king (b/g) with no knight on the a- or h-file.
The king starts on g1, the rooks on b1 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.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: a2.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 747.
The engine's main line opens with b4.
Morozov Balance Index: 96 of 100 — class A — most balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: -7 centipawns for White (depth 41, 400 000 000 nodes).
In 50 self-play games White scored 49.0% (95% CI 35.7–62.4%).
Explore position #401Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 010 · SP-401
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