Winning blow: pawn to f5 (e4·14)
c9-27508naming 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 b2, queen d2, rook d1 f1, bishop c2 e3, knight e1, pawn g2 h2 b3 f3 a4 c4 e4 d5.
Black: king c8, queen e7, rook b8 e8, bishop c7 f7, knight f5 g6, pawn a5 e5 b6 c6 f6 d7 g7 h7.
15 white and 16 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 16.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 3 points of material (36 against 39; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on b2, the black king on c8.
It is White to move on move 16, with 40 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 8 pawns, Black 8. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in.
The White king has 5 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
16. exf5 Nf4 17. d6 Qxd6 18. Qxd6 Bxd6 19. Rxd6
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to f5 keeps the pressure (+3.6).
- Well found: pawn to d6 (+3.6).
- Precise: queen to d6 is the top choice (+3.6).
- Best move. rook to d6 is exactly what the engine plays (+3.5).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Nf4, then d6 and you win the knight.
Move by move
- 16. exf5 — pawn to f5 (capture)
- Nf4 — knight to f4
- 17. d6 — pawn to d6
- Qxd6 — queen to d6 (capture)
- 18. Qxd6 — queen to d6 (capture)
- Bxd6 — bishop to d6 (capture)
- 19. Rxd6 — rook to d6 (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.
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 #812.
SP-812 · BastionScout — The king starts one file off-centre, on c or f, and a knight begins in a corner.
The king starts on c1, the rooks on a1 and f1, the queen on d1.
The king already stands on c1, so castling long moves only the rook, from a1 to d1.
The bishops stand on b1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a7 once the c- and f-pawns step aside.
The pawn on b2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 156.
The engine's main line opens with e4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Morozov Balance Index: 40 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +29 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #812Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-812
Similar puzzles
In your browser or in the Android app. Nothing to install · Free, no ads