Winning blow: pawn to b3 (a2·12)
c9-25209naming 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, queen h1, rook c1, bishop b1 e1, knight g1 b7, pawn a2 d2 e2 g2 h2 c4 f4.
Black: king c7, queen b3, rook c8 f8, bishop b8 e8, knight b6 g8, pawn c5 g6 a7 d7 e7 f7 h7.
14 white and 15 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 8.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 5 points of material (33 against 38; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on d1, the black king on c7.
It is White to move on move 8, with 3 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle. White are in check right now, so every reply must answer the check.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 7. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
The White king has 0 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
8. axb3 Kxb7 9. Bf2 d5 10. g3 f5 11. cxd5
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to b3 keeps the pressure (+3.2).
- bishop to f2 develops smoothly.
- A natural move: pawn to g3.
- Best move. pawn to d5 is exactly what the engine plays (+3.2).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Kxb7, then Bf2 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 8. axb3 — pawn to b3 (capture)
- Kxb7 — king to b7 (capture)
- 9. Bf2 — bishop to f2
- d5 — pawn to d5
- 10. g3 — pawn to g3
- f5 — pawn to f5
- 11. cxd5 — pawn to d5 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Win the pinned piece
The pinned piece cannot run — attack it again and win it.
A pinned piece cannot flee, which means you can win it outright by attacking it one more time. Count attackers against defenders: if you outnumber them, the piece is yours. The best extra attacker is a pawn, since it costs less than anything it might capture. Do not rush the capture — build up the pressure first, then harvest.
Only move
Everything else loses — find the only move that holds.
An only move is a position where everything loses except one single continuation. You cannot play "by hand" here: run through fundamentally different defenses — run away, block, trade, counterattack — and discard the ones that fail. The hallmark of these puzzles is that the obvious moves lose quickly while the solution often looks strange. First understand exactly what the threat is — then the one saving move reveals itself.
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 #376.
SP-376 · ThroneScout — A knight starts on the edge (a/h) and the king sits centrally on d or e; the mirror twin stays in this family too.
The king starts on d1, the rooks on c1 and f1, the queen on h1.
Castling long simply swaps the two pieces: the king on d1 and the rook on c1 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: b2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 301.
The engine's main line opens with O-O-O, bringing the king out to c1.
Morozov Balance Index: 72 of 100 — class B — balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +20 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #376Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-376
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