Winning blow: knight to d5 (f4·4)
c9-25881naming 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 e3, rook a1 h1, bishop h2 e8, knight f4, pawn a2 c2 f2 g2 c3 d4 h4.
Black: king e7, queen c8, rook a8 h8, bishop g8, knight d5 d8, pawn h5 e6 f6 a7 b7 g7.
14 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 15.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 1 points of material (35 against 34; 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 e7.
It is White to move on move 15, with 43 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 6. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for White: b, e.
White hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The White king has 6 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
15. Nxd5+ Kxe8 16. Nc7+ Kf7 17. O-O Bh7 18. Nxa8
Why it works
- Great move! knight to d5 keeps the pressure (+4.0).
- Spot on — knight to c7 (+4.0).
- A natural move: king to g1.
- Best move. knight to a8 is exactly what the engine plays (+3.9).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Kxe8, then Nc7+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 15. Nxd5+ — knight to d5 (capture) with check
- Kxe8 — king to e8 (capture)
- 16. Nc7+ — knight to c7 with check
- Kf7 — king to f7
- 17. O-O — king to h1
- Bh7 — bishop to h7
- 18. Nxa8 — knight to a8 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Royal fork
A fork with check: the king must move, and the second piece is lost.
A royal fork is a fork with check — one of the two targets is the king itself. The check must be answered first, so nobody is left to rescue the second piece. Look for squares where your piece gives check and simultaneously attacks an undefended queen or rook. It is the most reliable fork of all, because your opponent literally has no choice.
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.
Decoy
A sacrifice lures the king or a piece onto a fatal square.
A decoy is the mirror image of deflection: you sacrifice to drag the king or a piece onto a fatal square. The classic is a queen or rook sac whose capture pulls the king into a knight fork, a discovered check or mate. Find the square where the target will be hit, then find the offer it cannot refuse. Calculate to the very end — a decoy only works when the follow-up is forced.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #430.
SP-430 · 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 e1, the rooks on a1 and h1, the queen on c1.
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 f1 and g1; their long diagonals reach a6 and a7 once the e- and f-pawns step aside.
Every pawn on the second rank is defended from the very first move.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 724.
The engine's main line opens with d4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Morozov Balance Index: 16 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +39 centipawns for White (depth 48, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #430Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-430
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