Winning blow: knight to e7 (f5·31)
c9-28522naming 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.
Mate in 4: a forced checkmate in four moves — every reply is covered.
Winning tactic: there is a move that gains a decisive advantage — find it.
Difficulty 2400 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
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.
A mate in four is a longer forced net: each of your moves is a check or an irresistible threat, and the king is driven step by step to a square where it is finally trapped. Verify that the defender has exactly one reply at every branch.
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 g2, queen h7, rook c6, knight f5, pawn e2 g3 b5 g5.
Black: king f8, queen e7, rook g8, bishop h8, pawn f6 a7 g7.
8 white and 7 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 33.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 1 points of material (21 against 20; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g2, the black king on f8.
It is White to move on move 33, with 42 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 3. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c, d, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: a, f.
The White king has 7 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
33. Nxe7 Kxe7 34. Qe4+ Kd8 35. Qe6 Rf8 36. Rc8#
Why it works
- Best move. knight to e7 is exactly what the engine plays (#3).
- Spot on — queen to e4 (#2).
- A natural move: queen to e6.
- Best move. rook to c8 is exactly what the engine plays (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 4.
- If instead Kxe7, then Qe4+ and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 33. Nxe7 — knight to e7 (capture)
- Kxe7 — king to e7 (capture)
- 34. Qe4+ — queen to e4 with check
- Kd8 — king to d8
- 35. Qe6 — queen to e6
- Rf8 — rook to f8
- 36. Rc8# — rook to c8 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Mate in 4+
A long forced mating combination.
Mate in four or longer is a marathon of forcing moves where the grip must never loosen. The tools are the same: checks, double threats and sacrifices that deny the opponent a single free tempo. Do not juggle the whole tree at once — walk the main line all the way to mate first, then verify the side branches. If somewhere the defender finds one quiet move that holds, your very first move was wrong.
Decoy
A sacrifice lures the king or a piece onto a fatal square.
A decoy is the mirror image of deflection: you sacrifice to drag the king or a piece onto a fatal square. The classic is a queen or rook sac whose capture pulls the king into a knight fork, a discovered check or mate. Find the square where the target will be hit, then find the offer it cannot refuse. Calculate to the very end — a decoy only works when the follow-up is forced.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #483.
SP-483 · ThroneGuard — Both knights start on inner files (b–g) while the king sits centrally on d or e — one of 204 positions filed here.
The king starts on e1, the rooks on c1 and g1, the queen on b1.
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 a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
The pawn on e2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 563.
The engine's main line opens with g3.
Morozov Balance Index: 94 of 100 — class A — most balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +10 centipawns for White (depth 49, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #483Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 015 · SP-483
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