Winning blow: rook to h7 (h1·7)
c9-25100naming 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 1250 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 g3, queen h8, rook h1, bishop c3, pawn g2 e3 f3 a4.
Black: king f7, queen b3, rook a8, bishop e8, pawn d5 f6 g7.
8 white and 7 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 32.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 1 points of material (21 against 20; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g3, the black king on f7.
It is White to move on move 32, with 41 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 3. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, c, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: d.
The White king has 6 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
32. Rh7 Qb8+ 33. Kf2 Ke6 34. Qxg7
Why it works
- Great move! rook to h7 keeps the pressure (+9.0).
- Well found: king to f2 (+13.3).
- Strong! queen to g7 is the sharp choice (#16).
- You win decisive material (+15.0).
- If instead Qb8+, then Kf2 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 32. Rh7 — rook to h7
- Qb8+ — queen to b8 with check
- 33. Kf2 — king to f2
- Ke6 — king to e6
- 34. Qxg7 — queen to g7 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Absolute pin
A piece is pinned against its king — it cannot legally move.
An absolute pin freezes a piece on the line between its own king and your long-range attacker: moving it is simply illegal. The pattern is three units on one straight line — your bishop, rook or queen, an enemy piece, and the enemy king behind it. A pinned piece neither attacks nor defends anything: treat it as if it were off the board. Pile up on it, ideally with a pawn, because running away is against the rules.
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 #296.
SP-296 · BastionScout — The king starts one file off-centre, on c or f, and a knight begins in a corner.
The king starts on f1, the rooks on d1 and g1, the queen on a1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 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: h2.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 381.
The engine's main line opens with Ng3, bringing the knight out to g3.
Morozov Balance Index: 51 of 100 — class B — balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +26 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #296Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 009 · SP-296
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