Mate in 3: bishop to e8 (f7)
c9-17060naming 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 1860 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, rook f5 h8, bishop b4 f7, knight e7, pawn b2 e2 g2 h2 a3 d4.
Black: king d7, rook c7, knight b6, pawn c4 a6 f6 b7.
12 white and 7 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 25.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 13 points of material (25 against 12; 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 d7.
It is White to move on move 25, with 54 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 4. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for White: c, f.
White hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The White king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
25. Be8+ Ke6 26. Re5+ fxe5 27. Rh6#
Why it works
- Best move. bishop to e8 is exactly what the engine plays (#2).
- Spot on — rook to e5 (#1).
- Strong! rook to h6 is the sharp choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Ke6, then Re5+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 25. Be8+ — bishop to e8 with check
- Ke6 — king to e6
- 26. Re5+ — rook to e5 with check
- fxe5 — pawn to e5 (capture)
- 27. Rh6# — rook to h6 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.
Sacrifice attack
Give up material to unleash a decisive attack.
A sacrificial attack gives up material on purpose to rip the king's shelter open and launch a decisive assault. The sac is sound when you get concrete assets in return: open lines to the king, tempi, pieces ready to pour in. The signs: a poorly sheltered king, your forces aimed at its home, defenders stranded far away. The iron rule is to calculate, not hope — once the material is gone, there is no way back.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #168.
SP-168 · BastionScout — King off-centre on c or f with a knight starting on the rim (a/h).
The king starts on f1, the rooks on c1 and h1, the queen on g1.
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 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 797.
The engine's main line opens with c4.
Morozov Balance Index: 97 of 100 — class A — most balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +7 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #168Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 013 · SP-168
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