Winning blow: king to h3 (g2·6)
c9-25947naming 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 1390 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 g2, queen b1, rook f1, bishop d5, pawn g3 h4 b5 f7.
Black: king h6, queen d2, rook e8 h8, pawn a4 a5 h5 b6 d7.
8 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 31.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 3 points of material (21 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 g2, the black king on h6.
It is White to move on move 31, with 5 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle. White are in check right now, so every reply must answer the check.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c, e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: a, d.
The White king has 4 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
31. Kh3 Re6 32. Bxe6 dxe6 33. f8=B+ Rxf8 34. Rxf8
Why it works
- Great move! king to h3 keeps the pressure (+7.1).
- Well found: bishop to e6 (#9).
- Precise: pawn to f8 is the top choice (+8.2).
- Great move! rook to f8 keeps the pressure (#21).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Re6, then Bxe6 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 31. Kh3 — king to h3
- Re6 — rook to e6
- 32. Bxe6 — bishop to e6 (capture)
- dxe6 — pawn to e6 (capture)
- 33. f8=B+ — pawn to f8 with check
- Rxf8 — rook to f8 (capture)
- 34. Rxf8 — rook to f8 (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.
Underpromotion
Promoting to a knight or rook — not a queen — is the only way to win.
Underpromotion means choosing a knight, rook or bishop instead of a queen — and winning precisely because of it. The usual hero is the knight, which delivers a check or a fork from the promotion square in a way no queen can. A rook is chosen when a fresh queen would produce stalemate. When your pawn reaches the last rank, never promote on autopilot — first ask what the knight can do.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #399.
SP-399 · ThroneGuard — Both knights start on inner files (b–g) while the king sits centrally on d or e — one of 204 positions filed here.
The king starts on e1, the rooks on b1 and f1, the queen on a1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from e1 to g1.
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: c2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 752.
The engine's main line opens with b4.
Morozov Balance Index: 3 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +65 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
In 50 self-play games White scored 52.0% (95% CI 38.5–65.2%).
Explore position #399Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 010 · SP-399
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