Winning blow: knight to e6 (c7·8)
c9-25590naming 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 1620 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 d1, queen b4, rook a1 e1, knight d4 c7, pawn b2 c2 d3 e3 a4 h4.
Black: king d7, queen f8, rook a8 c8, bishop b7 h8, knight e7, pawn f4 d5 f5 d6 g6.
12 white and 12 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 24.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 2 points of material (31 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 d1, the black king on d7.
It is White to move on move 24, with 44 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 5. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for White: f, g.
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
24. Nce6 Qh6 25. Qxb7+ Ke8 26. Nb5 Be5 27. exf4
Why it works
- Great move! knight to e6 keeps the pressure (+3.7).
- Well found: queen to b7 (+3.4).
- A natural move: knight to b5.
- Best move. pawn to f4 is exactly what the engine plays (+3.6).
- You win a piece — the bishop.
- If instead Qh6, then Qxb7+ and you win the bishop.
Move by move
- 24. Nce6 — knight to e6
- Qh6 — queen to h6
- 25. Qxb7+ — queen to b7 (capture) with check
- Ke8 — king to e8
- 26. Nb5 — knight to b5
- Be5 — bishop to e5
- 27. exf4 — pawn to f4 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Quiet move
No check, no capture — yet this modest move decides the game.
A quiet move gives no check and takes nothing — yet it decides the game by creating an unstoppable threat or stealing the king's last square. This is the hardest class of moves: the eye hunts for loud blows while a modest shift does the winning. The clue: every forcing try runs into a defense, so seek the move that strengthens the threat or takes squares away. Train yourself to ask: what if I neither capture nor check, but quietly improve?
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #647.
SP-647 · 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 e1, the queen on f1.
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.
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 210.
The engine's main line opens with f4.
Morozov Balance Index: 86 of 100 — class A — most balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +15 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #647Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 012 · SP-647
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