Winning blow: pawn to d6 (c5·10)
c9-28219naming 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 1700 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 d1, rook a1 f1, bishop g1, knight e1 e5, pawn h2 b3 c3 c5.
Black: king c8, rook e8 g8, bishop d8, knight d6 e6, pawn d5 b6 f6 h7.
10 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 34.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 23 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on d1, the black king on c8.
It is White to move on move 34, with 40 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, e, g — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: d, f.
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
34. cxd6 fxe5 35. Rf7 Be7 36. Rxe7 Rxe7 37. dxe7
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to d6 keeps the pressure (+4.6).
- Well found: rook to f7 (+4.8).
- Precise: rook to e7 is the top choice (+4.6).
- Best move. pawn to e7 is exactly what the engine plays (+4.4).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead fxe5, then Rf7 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 34. cxd6 — pawn to d6 (capture)
- fxe5 — pawn to e5 (capture)
- 35. Rf7 — rook to f7
- Be7 — bishop to e7
- 36. Rxe7 — rook to e7 (capture)
- Rxe7 — rook to e7 (capture)
- 37. dxe7 — pawn to e7 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Winning exchange
A forced series of captures on one square ends in your favour.
A winning exchange is a forced series of captures on one square that leaves you ahead in material. It is pure arithmetic: count the attackers and defenders of the square and note the value of every piece in the queue. Capture in the right order — cheap pieces first, expensive ones later — or a winning trade turns into a losing one. The classic error is stopping the count halfway and missing the opponent's final recapture.
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 #279.
SP-279 · ThroneScout — Centre-file king, rim knight: 204 of the 960 positions share this pattern.
The king starts on d1, the rooks on b1 and f1, the queen on g1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from d1 to g1.
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 578.
The engine's main line opens with f4.
Morozov Balance Index: 3 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +51 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #279Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 013 · SP-279
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