Winning blow: pawn to f5 (g4·10)
c9-25238naming 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 f3, rook c3, bishop g1 c4, pawn b2 d2 a4 g4.
Black: king b7, queen f5, rook h6, bishop f4, pawn d3 a5 g5 b6 c6 e7.
8 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 30.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 8 points of material (15 against 23; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on f3, the black king on b7.
It is White to move on move 30, with 25 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): f, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: c, e.
White hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The White king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
30. gxf5 Rh3+ 31. Kf2 Rh4 32. b3 Be5 33. Rxd3
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to f5 keeps the pressure (+3.5).
- Spot on — king to f2 (+2.5).
- A natural move: pawn to b3.
- Best move. rook to d3 is exactly what the engine plays (+2.5).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Rh3+, then Kf2 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 30. gxf5 — pawn to f5 (capture)
- Rh3+ — rook to h3 with check
- 31. Kf2 — king to f2
- Rh4 — rook to h4
- 32. b3 — pawn to b3
- Be5 — bishop to e5
- 33. Rxd3 — rook to d3 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Remove the defender
Capture the guard first — then take what it protected.
Removing the defender is the straightforward plan: capture the guard first, then take what it guarded. Unlike deflection, the defender is not lured away — it is traded off or destroyed on the spot. Stare at the target you crave and ask who defends it, and whether that defender can be profitably eaten. Count the whole capture sequence, not just the first move — the trade must pay off at the end.
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.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #940.
SP-940 · BastionScout — A knight on the a- or h-file, king on c or f — the mirror twin lands here as well.
The king starts on c1, the rooks on a1 and d1, the queen on f1.
The king already stands on c1, so castling long moves only the rook, from a1 to d1.
The bishops stand on b1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a7 once the c- and f-pawns step aside.
The pawn on b2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 28.
The engine's main line opens with a4.
Morozov Balance Index: 59 of 100 — class B — balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +24 centipawns for White (depth 49, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #940Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-940
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