Winning blow: rook to e7 (e1·22)
c9-25245naming 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 1650 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
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 c3, rook d1 e1, bishop b1 h6, knight f3, pawn a2 f2 g2 b3 h3 d5.
Black: king d7, queen a8, rook d8 g8, bishop b6 c8, knight f6, pawn a6 g6 b7 c7 e7 h7.
13 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 17.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 34 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on g1, the black king on d7.
It is White to move on move 17, with 55 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 6. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for White: c, e.
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
17. Rxe7+ Kd6 18. Qxf6+
Why it works
- Great move! rook to e7 keeps the pressure (#4).
- Spot on — queen to f6 (#4).
- You win a piece — the knight.
- If instead Kd6, then Qxf6+ and you win the knight.
Move by move
- 17. Rxe7+ — rook to e7 (capture) with check
- Kd6 — king to d6
- 18. Qxf6+ — queen to f6 (capture) with check
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.
Check chase
Every move is a check — the king is chased into losing ground.
In a check chase every one of your moves is a check, so the opponent never gets a free second. The king is herded across the board until it loses a piece or walks into a decisive blow. Such lines are the easiest to calculate: each check allows only a handful of replies, so try them all. Make it a habit to start calculating any sharp position with the checks — they are the most forcing moves on the board.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #868.
SP-868 · 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 e1, the rooks on d1 and f1, the queen on a1.
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 second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: g2, h2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 94.
The engine's main line opens with Ng3, bringing the knight out to g3.
Morozov Balance Index: 0 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +75 centipawns for White (depth 43, 400 000 000 nodes).
In 50 self-play games White scored 59.0% (95% CI 45.2–71.5%).
Explore position #868Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 013 · SP-868
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