Winning blow: knight to b6 (a4·3)
c9-28271naming 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 e3, rook a8, bishop h1, knight a4, pawn a2 h4 d5 d6.
Black: king c8, rook b8 f8, knight g8, pawn e5 g5 c6 g6 d7.
8 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 32.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 3 points of material (15 against 18; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on e3, the black king on c8.
It is White to move on move 32, with 19 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): b, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: c, e, g.
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. Nb6+ Kb7 33. Rxb8+ Rxb8 34. Nxd7 cxd5 35. Nxb8
Why it works
- Great move! knight to b6 keeps the pressure (+4.8).
- Well found: rook to b8 (+4.7).
- Strong! knight to d7 is the sharp choice (+5.1).
- Best move. knight to b8 is exactly what the engine plays (+5.4).
- You win a piece — the rook.
- If instead Kb7, then Rxb8+ and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 32. Nb6+ — knight to b6 with check
- Kb7 — king to b7
- 33. Rxb8+ — rook to b8 (capture) with check
- Rxb8 — rook to b8 (capture)
- 34. Nxd7 — knight to d7 (capture)
- cxd5 — pawn to d5 (capture)
- 35. Nxb8 — knight to b8 (capture)
Types in this puzzle
Absolute pin
A piece is pinned against its king — it cannot legally move.
An absolute pin freezes a piece on the line between its own king and your long-range attacker: moving it is simply illegal. The pattern is three units on one straight line — your bishop, rook or queen, an enemy piece, and the enemy king behind it. A pinned piece neither attacks nor defends anything: treat it as if it were off the board. Pile up on it, ideally with a pawn, because running away is against the rules.
Endgame tactic
Tactics live in the endgame too — strike while material is scarce.
Tactics do not retire when the queens come off: forks, pins and double attacks live on in the endgame. With so little material left, every tactical loss is almost always decisive. The signs are the usual ones — undefended pieces, king and piece on one line, a pawn about to promote. Even in a "technical" ending, scan for a shot before every move, both yours and your opponent's.
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 #355.
SP-355 · ThroneGuard — A central king (d or e) and two knights tucked onto inner files: the family that holds the standard array, SP-518.
The king starts on d1, the rooks on c1 and e1, the queen on f1.
Castling long simply swaps the two pieces: the king on d1 and the rook on c1 trade places.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: a2, h2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 307.
The engine's main line opens with g4.
Morozov Balance Index: 65 of 100 — class B — balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +22 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #355Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 013 · SP-355
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