The daily position for Wednesday 16 September 2026. It is still open to solve — the grader reads your whole line, sidelines and evaluation included, before anything here is shown. Cover the solution and solve it first →
White to move. the model predicts 38% at this level.
The solution
34.♖︎c8!♖︎e8(34…♖︎d7is more resilient:35.♘︎e7♔︎g736.♖︎xd8+−)35.♖︎xd8♖︎xd836.♘︎e7(not36.♘︎h6?♔︎g737.♘︎xf7♔︎xf738.♗︎c8b6=)36…♔︎g737.♖︎c8(not37.g4?hxg438.♗︎xg4f539.exf5g5⩲)37…♖︎f8(37…♖︎xc8is as good:38.♘︎xc8f539.♘︎xd6+−)38.♖︎xf8+−
34.♖︎c8 — most players miss this
35.♖︎xd8 — the natural move · threatening both ♖︎xe8+ and ♖︎xa8
36.♘︎e7 — most players miss this · worth +1
37.♖︎c8 — almost nobody finds this · worth +1 · threatening both ♖︎xd8 and ♖︎xa8
38.♖︎xf8 — the natural move
“hard to find”, “the natural move” and the rest describe how often this move is played by Maia-2, weighted across the 1500/1900/2000 audience the difficulty model is fitted on — a model of human play, not a count of anyone who solved this position.
Members can take this away as a PGN — the diagram, the verified line and their own analysis in one file, for a database, Anki or Chessable.
What happened at the board
Hracek found it · 1-0
the game went on36.♘︎xd6♖︎xd637.♖︎c8+♔︎g738.♖︎xa8♘︎g539.♗︎c8♖︎f640.♗︎xb7♘︎xf341.♖︎xa6♘︎e1+… on to move 44 · 1-0full game ↗
The field
83% of the 18 committed lines here found the key move — the model predicted 38% at this level.