Winning blow: rook to h1 (g1·10)
c9-25531naming 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, rook a1 g1, bishop b3, knight f5 g6, pawn b2 c2 d3 g3 e4 a6.
Black: king d8, queen h1, rook g7 b8, bishop c7 d7, pawn b5 e5 g5 c6 d6 a7.
12 white and 12 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 22.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 6 points of material (25 against 31; 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 d8.
It is White to move on move 22, with 38 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): f, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
Black hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The White king has 5 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
22. Rxh1 Rxg6 23. Rh8+ Be8 24. Bf7 Kd7 25. Bxg6
Why it works
- Great move! rook to h1 keeps the pressure (+5.2).
- Well found: rook to h8 (+5.9).
- Strong! bishop to f7 is the sharp choice (+5.8).
- Best move. bishop to g6 is exactly what the engine plays (+5.0).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Rxg6, then Rh8+ and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 22. Rxh1 — rook to h1 (capture)
- Rxg6 — rook to g6 (capture)
- 23. Rh8+ — rook to h8 with check
- Be8 — bishop to e8
- 24. Bf7 — bishop to f7
- Kd7 — king to d7
- 25. Bxg6 — bishop to g6 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Bishop fork
The bishop attacks two pieces on crossing diagonals at once.
A bishop fork happens when the bishop lands where two diagonals cross and attacks a target on each of them. Both victims must stand on the bishop's color — that is the first thing to verify. Scan for loose enemy pieces that share the color of squares with their own king or queen. A common sin is placing your own pieces on squares of one color and handing your opponent exactly this geometry.
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.
Interference
A piece lands between defender and defended, cutting the connection.
Interference means planting a piece between the defender and what it defends, cutting the wire. Often it is a sacrifice: the piece lands on a square where it can be taken, yet two enemy defensive lines cross exactly there. Look for that intersection point — the square shared by two of the opponent's lines of defense. The intruder can be captured, but whichever piece takes it abandons its own duty.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #756.
SP-756 · ThroneGuard — King on a central file (d/e) with both knights on inner files — the classic-type setup.
The king starts on d1, the rooks on a1 and g1, the queen on h1.
Castling ends where it always does: king to g1 and rook to f1 on the short side, king to c1 and rook to d1 on the long one.
The bishops stand on b1 and c1; their long diagonals reach h7 and h6 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: f2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 398.
The engine's main line opens with d4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Morozov Balance Index: 34 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +31 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #756Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-756
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