Winning blow: rook to g2 (g7)
c9-24938naming 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 a3, rook d1 g7, knight d7, pawn f5 f6.
Black: king e8, rook g2 d8, bishop e5, knight f7, pawn a6 c6 a7.
6 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 40.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 4 points of material (15 against 19; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on a3, the black king on e8.
It is White to move on move 40, with 28 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 2 pawns, Black 3. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, d, e, g, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: a, c.
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
40. Rxg2 Bd6+ 41. Rxd6 Nxd6 42. Ne5 Nc4+ 43. Nxc4
Why it works
- Great move! rook to g2 keeps the pressure (+3.5).
- Well found: rook to d6 (+3.9).
- Strong! knight to e5 is the sharp choice (+4.0).
- Great move! knight to c4 keeps the pressure (+4.3).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Bd6+, then Rxd6 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 40. Rxg2 — rook to g2 (capture)
- Bd6+ — bishop to d6 with check
- 41. Rxd6 — rook to d6 (capture)
- Nxd6 — knight to d6 (capture)
- 42. Ne5 — knight to e5
- Nc4+ — knight to c4 with check
- 43. Nxc4 — knight to c4 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Winning blow
Find the strike that wins material by force.
A winning blow is a forced material gain that does not fit a single textbook motif. The general tactical recipe applies: spot loose pieces, an awkwardly placed king, overloaded lines. Go through the forcing moves in order of violence — checks, captures, threats — because most combinations start with one of them. Do not judge by feel: calculate the concrete line until the outcome is beyond doubt.
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 #644.
SP-644 · ThroneScout — The king starts on d or e while at least one knight begins in a corner.
The king starts on e1, the rooks on a1 and f1, the queen on g1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from e1 to g1.
The bishops stand on b1 and c1; their long diagonals reach h7 and h6 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
The pawn on e2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 222.
The engine's main line opens with g4.
Morozov Balance Index: 83 of 100 — class A — most balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +16 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #644Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-644
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