Winning blow: rook to g8 (g6·2)
c9-26110naming 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 g6 h7, bishop d3 f6, knight f2, pawn a2 d2 e3 c4.
Black: king e8, queen a8, rook f7 d8, pawn f3 b4 c5 f5 b6 d6.
10 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 29.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 2 points of material (23 against 25; 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 e8.
It is White to move on move 29, with 43 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): g, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: b, f.
White hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The White king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
29. Rg8+ Kd7 30. Bxf5+ Kc6 31. Be4+ Kd7 32. Rxf7+
Why it works
- Great move! rook to g8 keeps the pressure (+8.2).
- Spot on — bishop to f5 (+8.4).
- Precise: bishop to e4 is the top choice (+8.6).
- Great move! rook to f7 keeps the pressure (#6).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Kd7, then Bxf5+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 29. Rg8+ — rook to g8 with check
- Kd7 — king to d7
- 30. Bxf5+ — bishop to f5 (capture) with check
- Kc6 — king to c6
- 31. Be4+ — bishop to e4 with check
- Kd7 — king to d7
- 32. Rxf7+ — rook to f7 (capture) with check
Types in this puzzle
Win the pinned piece
The pinned piece cannot run — attack it again and win it.
A pinned piece cannot flee, which means you can win it outright by attacking it one more time. Count attackers against defenders: if you outnumber them, the piece is yours. The best extra attacker is a pawn, since it costs less than anything it might capture. Do not rush the capture — build up the pressure first, then harvest.
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.
Check chase
Every move is a check — the king is chased into losing ground.
In a check chase every one of your moves is a check, so the opponent never gets a free second. The king is herded across the board until it loses a piece or walks into a decisive blow. Such lines are the easiest to calculate: each check allows only a handful of replies, so try them all. Make it a habit to start calculating any sharp position with the checks — they are the most forcing moves on the board.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #194.
SP-194 · 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 e1, the rooks on d1 and h1, the queen on b1.
The queenside rook already stands on d1, so castling long moves only the king, from e1 to c1.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
The pawn on f2 is defended by the king alone — the classic soft spot of the standard setup.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 663.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Morozov Balance Index: 92 of 100 — class A — most balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +12 centipawns for White (depth 49, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #194Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-194
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