Mate in 3: knight to e6 (d8)
c9-15920naming tag (square·N)The tactical motive
Chess960 twist: use the unusual starting setup of the pieces.
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 1860 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
White to move — find the best continuation
Position on the board
White: king g2, queen f5, rook d1 c2, bishop e4, knight d8, pawn a2 f2 h3 d4 g4.
Black: king f8, queen h8, rook e3, bishop a7 e8, pawn b2 h4 g5 e7 f7.
11 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 26.
Solution & explanation
Main line
26. Ne6+ Kg8 27. Qxg5+ Qg7 28. Qxg7#
Why it works
- Great move! knight to e6 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Spot on — queen to g5 (#1).
- Precise: queen to g7 is the top choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Kg8, then Qxg5+ and you stay on top.
Types in this puzzle
Supported queen mate
The queen delivers mate face to face, protected by a friend.
The supported queen mate is the most common pattern of all: the queen lands next to the king and mates because a friendly piece or pawn protects her. The king is helpless — capturing is impossible, and the queen covers every neighboring square herself. Hunt for a protected square beside the enemy king: a knight, bishop or pawn eyeing it turns her invasion into mate. Verify one thing — that the square really is defended, or the king eats her.
Mate in 3
A forced checkmate in three moves.
Mate in three is a forced staircase: each of your moves narrows the opponent's choices, and the third one ends the game. Look for the start among checks and sacrifices — quiet first moves are rare in mating problems, but deliciously sneaky. Keep the tree in your head: every defense gets its own branch. Do not stop calculating after move two — see the final mating picture with your own eyes.
Royal fork
A fork with check: the king must move, and the second piece is lost.
A royal fork is a fork with check — one of the two targets is the king itself. The check must be answered first, so nobody is left to rescue the second piece. Look for squares where your piece gives check and simultaneously attacks an undefended queen or rook. It is the most reliable fork of all, because your opponent literally has no choice.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #184.
SP-184 · BastionScout — A knight on the a- or h-file, king on c or f — the mirror twin lands here as well.
The king starts on f1, the rooks on c1 and g1, the queen on h1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade places.
The bishops stand on b1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a5 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
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 BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 781.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Morozov Balance Index: 28 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +33 centipawns for White (depth 49, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #184Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 013 · SP-184
Similar puzzles
Free, no ads · Android 8.0+ · coming soon to Google Play