Winning blow: pawn to e6 (f5·6)
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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 g1, queen h7, rook g4, bishop a1, pawn a2 e2 h2 d3 b4 f5.
Black: king f8, queen b7, rook d8, bishop g7, knight b8, pawn a5 e5 b6 c6 f6.
10 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 22.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 2 points of material (23 against 25; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g1, the black king on f8.
It is White to move on move 22, with 36 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): g — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: c.
The White king has 4 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
22. fxe6 Qe7 23. h4 Rd5 24. h5 Rxh5 25. Qxh5
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to e6 keeps the pressure (+4.5).
- Well found: pawn to h4 (+4.8).
- Strong! pawn to h5 is the sharp choice (+5.1).
- Great move! queen to h5 keeps the pressure (+4.9).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Qe7, then h4 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 22. fxe6 — pawn to e6 (capture)
- Qe7 — queen to e7
- 23. h4 — pawn to h4
- Rd5 — rook to d5
- 24. h5 — pawn to h5
- Rxh5 — rook to h5 (capture)
- 25. Qxh5 — queen to h5 (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.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #83.
SP-83 · ThroneGuard — King home on d or e, knights kept off the a- and h-files — the family of the standard starting array.
The king starts on e1, the rooks on d1 and f1, the queen on g1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from e1 to g1.
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: c2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 867.
The engine's main line opens with g4.
Morozov Balance Index: 40 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +29 centipawns for White (depth 48, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #83Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-83
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