Winning blow: rook to c7 (c1·13)
c9-25260naming 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 d2, rook c1 f1, bishop d5, pawn a2 b2 e3 h3 d4 g4.
Black: king g7, queen g5, rook c7 f8, bishop h8, pawn b4 a5 d6 h6.
10 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 27.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 7 points of material (19 against 26; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on d2, the black king on g7.
It is White to move on move 27, with 41 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
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
27. Rxc7+ Kg6 28. Be4+ Rf5 29. Rxf5 Qxf5 30. Bxf5+
Why it works
- Great move! rook to c7 keeps the pressure (+8.2).
- Well found: bishop to e4 (+8.5).
- Precise: rook to f5 is the top choice (+8.6).
- Best move. bishop to f5 is exactly what the engine plays (+8.7).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Kg6, then Be4+ and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 27. Rxc7+ — rook to c7 (capture) with check
- Kg6 — king to g6
- 28. Be4+ — bishop to e4 with check
- Rf5 — rook to f5
- 29. Rxf5 — rook to f5 (capture)
- Qxf5 — queen to f5 (capture)
- 30. Bxf5+ — bishop to f5 (capture) with check
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 #791.
SP-791 · 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 d1, the rooks on a1 and f1, the queen on b1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from d1 to g1.
A bishop starts in the corner on h1: it has a single diagonal, which the g-pawn unlocks, running out to a8.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: h2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 162.
The engine's main line opens with c3.
Morozov Balance Index: 59 of 100 — class B — balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +24 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #791Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-791
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