Winning blow: rook to f4 (g4)
c9-25936naming 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 f1, rook d2 g4, knight c6, pawn a3 h3 c4 b5 d5 g5.
Black: king f8, rook d7 a8, knight f4 f5, pawn h4 b6 g6 a7 f7.
10 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 37.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 2 points of material (19 against 21; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on f1, the black king on f8.
It is White to move on move 37, with 29 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: f.
The White king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
37. Rxf4 Re8 38. Kf2 Ng3 39. Kf3 Re1 40. Rxh4
Why it works
- Great move! rook to f4 keeps the pressure (+1.9).
- king to f2 develops smoothly.
- A natural move: king to f3.
- Best move. rook to h4 is exactly what the engine plays (+1.7).
- You win a piece — the knight.
- If instead Re8, then Kf2 and you win the knight.
Move by move
- 37. Rxf4 — rook to f4 (capture)
- Re8 — rook to e8
- 38. Kf2 — king to f2
- Ng3 — knight to g3
- 39. Kf3 — king to f3
- Re1 — rook to e1
- 40. Rxh4 — rook to h4 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Clearance
Clear your own piece out of the way — with tempo — for the decisive blow.
Clearance is about your own piece standing in the way of the decisive blow — so you move it aside, or even throw it away. The key is to clear with tempo: jump off with a check, a capture or a threat, giving the opponent no time to regroup. The telltale sign: you see a crushing queen or rook move, but one of your own pieces blocks the line or occupies the square. Do not cling to it — a clearance sacrifice usually costs less than a missed attack.
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.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #131.
SP-131 · BastionGuard — Off-centre king (c/f), no knight on the a- or h-file.
The king starts on f1, the rooks on c1 and g1, the queen on d1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade places.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: a2, h2.
The setup belongs to the BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 819.
The engine's main line opens with d4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Morozov Balance Index: 100 of 100 — class A — most balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: 0 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
In 50 self-play games White scored 50.0% (95% CI 36.6–63.4%).
Explore position #131Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-131
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