Winning blow: queen to e3 (c1·2)
c9-27731naming 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 c1, rook g1, bishop h3, pawn a3 c4 h4 d5.
Black: king f8, queen a5, rook e3, bishop e2 b4, pawn c5 b6 f6 a7 d7.
8 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 32.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 4 points of material (21 against 25; 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 f8.
It is White to move on move 32, with 34 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): e, g — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: b, f.
Black 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
32. Qxe3 Bxa3+ 33. Kc2 Qa4+ 34. Kd2 Qb4+ 35. Kxe2
Why it works
- Best move. queen to e3 is exactly what the engine plays (+3.5).
- Well found: king to c2 (+4.1).
- Strong! king to d2 is the sharp choice (+4.3).
- Great move! king to e2 keeps the pressure (+4.4).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Bxa3+, then Kc2 and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 32. Qxe3 — queen to e3 (capture)
- Bxa3+ — bishop to a3 (capture) with check
- 33. Kc2 — king to c2
- Qa4+ — queen to a4 with check
- 34. Kd2 — king to d2
- Qb4+ — queen to b4 with check
- 35. Kxe2 — king to e2 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
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.
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.
Counter-strike
Don't defend — answer the threat with a bigger one.
The counter-strike: instead of defending against the threat, you answer with a bigger threat of your own. While your opponent grabs a pawn, you deliver mate — the arithmetic favors you. Look for a counter when direct defenses fail: do you have a check, an attack on the queen, a mating threat? The beginner's error is meeting every threat with a reflexive defense without checking the counterattacking resources first.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #222.
SP-222 · ThroneScout — King on a central file (d/e) with a knight starting on the rim (a/h).
The king starts on d1, the rooks on c1 and h1, the queen on b1.
Castling long simply swaps the two pieces: the king on d1 and the rook on c1 trade places.
The bishops stand on f1 and g1; their long diagonals reach a6 and a7 once the e- and f-pawns step aside.
The pawn on d2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 644.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Morozov Balance Index: 96 of 100 — class A — most balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +8 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #222Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-222
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