Attack on the uncastled king: rook to f8 (f1·17)
c9-25744naming 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.
Uncastled king: the enemy king is stuck in the centre — punish it before it castles.
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.
An uncastled king in the centre is a standing target. Look for ways to open the central files and diagonals against it with checks and threats before it can shelter — every tempo the king spends in the middle is a chance for a combination.
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 f1, bishop d3, knight b3, pawn a2 h4.
Black: king d8, rook a8 f8, bishop g6, pawn a5 d5 h5 c6 b7.
6 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 27.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 5 points of material (13 against 18; 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 d8.
It is White to move on move 27, with 37 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 2 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e, f, g — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: b, c, d.
The White king has 7 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
27. Rxf8+ Be8 28. Bg6 Ke7 29. Rxe8+ Rxe8 30. Bxe8
Why it works
- Great move! rook to f8 keeps the pressure (+4.7).
- Well found: bishop to g6 (+5.1).
- Precise: rook to e8 is the top choice (+5.3).
- Great move! bishop to e8 keeps the pressure (+5.2).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Be8, then Bg6 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 27. Rxf8+ — rook to f8 (capture) with check
- Be8 — bishop to e8
- 28. Bg6 — bishop to g6
- Ke7 — king to e7
- 29. Rxe8+ — rook to e8 (capture) with check
- Rxe8 — rook to e8 (capture)
- 30. Bxe8 — bishop to e8 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Absolute pin
A piece is pinned against its king — it cannot legally move.
An absolute pin freezes a piece on the line between its own king and your long-range attacker: moving it is simply illegal. The pattern is three units on one straight line — your bishop, rook or queen, an enemy piece, and the enemy king behind it. A pinned piece neither attacks nor defends anything: treat it as if it were off the board. Pile up on it, ideally with a pawn, because running away is against the rules.
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.
Endgame tactic
Tactics live in the endgame too — strike while material is scarce.
Tactics do not retire when the queens come off: forks, pins and double attacks live on in the endgame. With so little material left, every tactical loss is almost always decisive. The signs are the usual ones — undefended pieces, king and piece on one line, a pawn about to promote. Even in a "technical" ending, scan for a shot before every move, both yours and your opponent's.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #568.
SP-568 · ThroneGuard — A centre-file king with no knight on the edge; a position and its mirror twin always share this family.
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 e1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a5 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: b2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 493.
The engine's main line opens with g3.
Morozov Balance Index: 11 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +42 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #568Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-568
Similar puzzles
In your browser or in the Android app. Nothing to install · Free, no ads