Winning blow: rook to f8 (e8·2)
c9-25919naming 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 1430 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 c2, rook d1 e8, bishop f5, knight d6, pawn a2 b2 f2 c3 f4 h4 g5.
Black: king c7, rook g7 a8, bishop c8 f8, knight d7, pawn h5 c6 a7 b7 h7.
12 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 24.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 1 points of material (23 against 24; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on c2, the black king on c7.
It is White to move on move 24, with 47 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d, e — 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
24. Rxf8 Nxf8 25. Ne8+ Kb6 26. Nxg7 Bxf5+ 27. Nxf5
Why it works
- Great move! rook to f8 keeps the pressure (+3.3).
- Well found: knight to e8 (+3.6).
- Strong! knight to g7 is the sharp choice (+3.6).
- Great move! knight to f5 keeps the pressure (+3.5).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Nxf8, then Ne8+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 24. Rxf8 — rook to f8 (capture)
- Nxf8 — knight to f8 (capture)
- 25. Ne8+ — knight to e8 with check
- Kb6 — king to b6
- 26. Nxg7 — knight to g7 (capture)
- Bxf5+ — bishop to f5 (capture) with check
- 27. Nxf5 — knight to f5 (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.
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 #566.
SP-566 · ThroneGuard — The king starts in the middle of the back rank, on d or e, and neither knight begins in a corner.
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 c1 and f1; their long diagonals reach h6 and a6 once the d- and e-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 486.
The engine's main line opens with h4.
Morozov Balance Index: 65 of 100 — class B — balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +22 centipawns for White (depth 43, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #566Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 011 · SP-566
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