Winning blow: pawn to f6 (f5·7)
c9-28354naming 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 e1, queen h6, rook a1 f4, bishop e2, knight g3, pawn a2 d2 g2 h2 a3 d5 f5.
Black: king g8, queen d6, rook a8 f8, bishop f7, knight e7 b8, pawn a7 b7 c7 h7.
13 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 19.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 32 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on e1, the black king on g8.
It is White to move on move 19, with 47 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: b, c.
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
19. f6 Qxf6 20. Qxf6
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to f6 keeps the pressure (+8.4).
- Well found: queen to f6 (+8.7).
- You win a piece — the queen.
- If instead Qxf6, then Qxf6 and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 19. f6 — pawn to f6
- Qxf6 — queen to f6 (capture)
- 20. Qxf6 — queen to f6 (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 #621.
SP-621 · ThroneScout — Centre-file king, rim knight: 204 of the 960 positions share this pattern.
The king starts on e1, the rooks on a1 and f1, the queen on c1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from e1 to g1.
The bishops stand on d1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h5 and a7 once the e- and f-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: g2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 248.
The engine's main line opens with f4.
Morozov Balance Index: 18 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +38 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #621Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 012 · SP-621
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