Winning blow: knight to a8 (c7·3)
c9-26413naming 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, rook g1 b5, bishop a3 d3, knight g3 c7, pawn c2 d2 f2 g2 h2 e3 a4.
Black: king e7, queen a8, rook b8 g8, bishop d7, knight g6 d8, pawn e5 f5 d6 b7 g7 h7.
14 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 14.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 5 points of material (29 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 14, with 45 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.
White hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. 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
14. Nxa8 Rxa8 15. Rb6 Nc6 16. Rxb7 Rxa4 17. Bxf5
Why it works
- Great move! knight to a8 keeps the pressure (+3.5).
- Spot on — rook to b6 (+3.1).
- Precise: rook to b7 is the top choice (+3.2).
- Best move. bishop to f5 is exactly what the engine plays (+3.1).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Rxa8, then Rb6 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 14. Nxa8 — knight to a8 (capture)
- Rxa8 — rook to a8 (capture)
- 15. Rb6 — rook to b6
- Nc6 — knight to c6
- 16. Rxb7 — rook to b7 (capture)
- Rxa4 — rook to a4 (capture)
- 17. Bxf5 — bishop to f5 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Absolute pin
A piece is pinned against its king — it cannot legally move.
An absolute pin freezes a piece on the line between its own king and your long-range attacker: moving it is simply illegal. The pattern is three units on one straight line — your bishop, rook or queen, an enemy piece, and the enemy king behind it. A pinned piece neither attacks nor defends anything: treat it as if it were off the board. Pile up on it, ideally with a pawn, because running away is against the rules.
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.
Remove the defender
Capture the guard first — then take what it protected.
Removing the defender is the straightforward plan: capture the guard first, then take what it guarded. Unlike deflection, the defender is not lured away — it is traded off or destroyed on the spot. Stare at the target you crave and ask who defends it, and whether that defender can be profitably eaten. Count the whole capture sequence, not just the first move — the trade must pay off at the end.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #582.
SP-582 · ThroneScout — King on a central file (d/e) with a knight starting on the rim (a/h).
The king starts on e1, the rooks on b1 and g1, the queen on a1.
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.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: c2, h2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 278.
The engine's main line opens with b3.
Morozov Balance Index: 26 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +34 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #582Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-582
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