Mate in 3: queen to c8 (g4·3)
c9-16324naming 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 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 1760 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.
In a mate in three every move must be forcing; the defender should never get a free tempo. Find the check or threat that herds the king, calculate the single defence to each, and confirm the net closes on the third move.
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 g1, queen g4, rook c1 d1, bishop f2, knight c7, pawn g2 h2 e3 b4 f6.
Black: king f8, queen b5, rook c8 g8, bishop a7, pawn b2 e5 c6 g6 h7.
11 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 34.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 3 points of material (30 against 27; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g1, the black king on f8.
It is White to move on move 34, with 47 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: c.
The White king has 1 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
34. Qxc8+ Kf7 35. Qe6+ Kf8 36. Rd8#
Why it works
- Best move. queen to c8 is exactly what the engine plays (#2).
- Spot on — queen to e6 (#1).
- Precise: rook to d8 is the top choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Kf7, then Qe6+ and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 34. Qxc8+ — queen to c8 (capture) with check
- Kf7 — king to f7
- 35. Qe6+ — queen to e6 with check
- Kf8 — king to f8
- 36. Rd8# — rook to d8 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
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.
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 #525.
SP-525 · 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 a1 and h1, the queen on c1.
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.
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 ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 536.
The engine's main line opens with d4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Morozov Balance Index: 37 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +30 centipawns for White (depth 48, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #525Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 013 · SP-525
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