Winning blow: rook to h3 (g3·7)
c9-27647naming 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 1610 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
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 h5, rook b1 g3, bishop h1 f4, knight f1 b3, pawn a2 b2 h2 c3 d3 g4.
Black: king g7, queen d7, rook b8 e8, bishop c8 h8, knight d6 c7, pawn d4 c5 b6 a7 e7 f7.
14 white and 14 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 21.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 37 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on f2, the black king on g7.
It is White to move on move 21, with 55 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 6. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for White: e, f.
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
21. Rh3 Ne4+ 22. dxe4
Why it works
- Great move! rook to h3 keeps the pressure (#4).
- Spot on — pawn to e4 (#3).
- You win a piece — the knight.
- If instead Ne4+, then dxe4 and you win the knight.
Move by move
- 21. Rh3 — rook to h3
- Ne4+ — knight to e4 with check
- 22. dxe4 — pawn to e4 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Quiet move
No check, no capture — yet this modest move decides the game.
A quiet move gives no check and takes nothing — yet it decides the game by creating an unstoppable threat or stealing the king's last square. This is the hardest class of moves: the eye hunts for loud blows while a modest shift does the winning. The clue: every forcing try runs into a defense, so seek the move that strengthens the threat or takes squares away. Train yourself to ask: what if I neither capture nor check, but quietly improve?
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #231.
SP-231 · ThroneScout — Centre-file king, rim knight: 204 of the 960 positions share this pattern.
The king starts on e1, the rooks on b1 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 h1: it has a single diagonal, which the g-pawn unlocks, running out to a8.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: a2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 626.
The engine's main line opens with d4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Morozov Balance Index: 55 of 100 — class B — balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +25 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #231Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 011 · SP-231
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