Winning blow: queen to f8 (g7·6)
c9-27638naming 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 1430 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 f2, queen g7, rook g1 h7, pawn a2 d2 e3 f5.
Black: king e8, queen a3, rook c6 f8, bishop d5, pawn b3 d6 a7 e7 f7.
8 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 30.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 4 points of material (23 against 27; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on f2, the black king on e8.
It is White to move on move 30, with 44 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c, g, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: b.
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
30. Qxf8+ Kd7 31. Rh8 Rc2 32. Qe8+ Kc7 33. Qxe7+
Why it works
- Great move! queen to f8 keeps the pressure (+5.6).
- Well found: rook to h8 (+5.6).
- Strong! queen to e8 is the sharp choice (+6.2).
- Great move! queen to e7 keeps the pressure (+6.5).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Kd7, then Rh8 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 30. Qxf8+ — queen to f8 (capture) with check
- Kd7 — king to d7
- 31. Rh8 — rook to h8
- Rc2 — rook to c2
- 32. Qe8+ — queen to e8 with check
- Kc7 — king to c7
- 33. Qxe7+ — queen to e7 (capture) with check
Types in this puzzle
Overload
One defender guards two things — it cannot do both jobs.
Overloading exploits a defender with two jobs at once — guarding a piece and covering a mating square, for instance. It cannot do both: your first strike forces it to handle one duty and abandon the other. Find the overworked piece by asking what happens to each of its charges if it gets distracted. Then hit one target and collect the other — an overloaded defender only pretends to defend.
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.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #784.
SP-784 · 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 e1, the rooks on c1 and g1, the queen on d1.
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.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
Every pawn on the second rank is defended from the very first move.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 175.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Morozov Balance Index: 1 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +58 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
In 50 self-play games White scored 58.0% (95% CI 44.2–70.6%).
Explore position #784Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 011 · SP-784
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