Winning blow: pawn to e3 (e2·4)
c9-26761naming 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 g1, queen b5, rook c1, bishop d2 b7, pawn a2 b2 e2 g3.
Black: king d8, queen h6, rook g8, bishop b6, knight h8, pawn d3 g4 g5 a7 e7 f7.
9 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 23.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 2 points of material (24 against 26; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g1, the black king on d8.
It is White to move on move 23, with 7 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 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: d, 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
23. e3 Qe6 24. Qxd3+ Ke8 25. Rc8+ Qxc8 26. Bxc8
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to e3 keeps the pressure (+5.3).
- Well found: queen to d3 (+5.6).
- Precise: rook to c8 is the top choice (+5.7).
- Best move. bishop to c8 is exactly what the engine plays (+5.8).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Qe6, then Qxd3+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 23. e3 — pawn to e3
- Qe6 — queen to e6
- 24. Qxd3+ — queen to d3 (capture) with check
- Ke8 — king to e8
- 25. Rc8+ — rook to c8 with check
- Qxc8 — queen to c8 (capture)
- 26. Bxc8 — bishop to c8 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Winning blow
Find the strike that wins material by force.
A winning blow is a forced material gain that does not fit a single textbook motif. The general tactical recipe applies: spot loose pieces, an awkwardly placed king, overloaded lines. Go through the forcing moves in order of violence — checks, captures, threats — because most combinations start with one of them. Do not judge by feel: calculate the concrete line until the outcome is beyond doubt.
Blocking save
Block the check with tempo — and turn the game around.
The blocking save: you interpose a piece against the check — not passively, but with tempo, so the blocker creates a threat of its own. Such a block turns defense into attack. Whenever you are checked, compare all three replies — capture, move the king, interpose — and among the interpositions hunt for the one that counterattacks. The mistake is automatically stepping aside with the king when an active block would have turned the game around.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #820.
SP-820 · ThroneScout — A knight starts on the edge (a/h) and the king sits centrally on d or e; the mirror twin stays in this family too.
The king starts on d1, the rooks on a1 and g1, the queen on f1.
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 b1 and c1; their long diagonals reach h7 and h6 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: h2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 142.
The engine's main line opens with c3.
Morozov Balance Index: 10 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +43 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #820Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 010 · SP-820
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