Winning blow: queen to g3 (h3·4)
c9-25263naming 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 e1, queen h3, rook g1, bishop h1, knight d3 b5, pawn d2 f2 h2 e3 b4 f5.
Black: king b8, queen b3, rook d8 g8, bishop a8, knight a4 c6, pawn g5 a7 b7 e7 h7.
12 white and 12 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 18.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 4 points of material (29 against 33; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on e1, the black king on b8.
It is White to move on move 18, with 37 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: a, g.
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
18. Qg3+ Rd6 19. Nxd6 Qb1+ 20. Ke2 Nc3+ 21. dxc3
Why it works
- Great move! queen to g3 keeps the pressure (+3.0).
- Well found: knight to d6 (+3.8).
- Strong! king to e2 is the sharp choice (+4.2).
- Great move! pawn to c3 keeps the pressure (+4.3).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Rd6, then Nxd6 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 18. Qg3+ — queen to g3 with check
- Rd6 — rook to d6
- 19. Nxd6 — knight to d6 (capture)
- Qb1+ — queen to b1 with check
- 20. Ke2 — king to e2
- Nc3+ — knight to c3 with check
- 21. dxc3 — pawn to c3 (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 #67.
SP-67 · ThroneGuard — A central king (d or e) and two knights tucked onto inner files: the family that holds the standard array, SP-518.
The king starts on e1, the rooks on d1 and g1, the queen on f1.
The queenside rook already stands on d1, so castling long moves only the king, from e1 to c1.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: c2, h2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 883.
The engine's main line opens with g4.
Morozov Balance Index: 99 of 100 — class A — most balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +4 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #67Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-67
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