Mate in 3: knight to h5
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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 g2, queen e6, rook g1, knight f2 f4, pawn h2 f3 c4 g5.
Black: king g7, queen a2, rook f8, bishop b7, knight d8, pawn b3 d6 c7 e7.
9 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 27.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 24 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on g2, the black king on g7.
It is White to move on move 27, with 39 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: b, d, e.
The White king has 4 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
27. Nh5+ Kh7 28. Qh6+ Kg8 29. Qg7#
Why it works
- Great move! knight to h5 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: queen to h6 (#1).
- Precise: queen to g7 is the top choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Kh7, then Qh6+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 27. Nh5+ — knight to h5 with check
- Kh7 — king to h7
- 28. Qh6+ — queen to h6 with check
- Kg8 — king to g8
- 29. Qg7# — queen to g7 and it is checkmate
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 #612.
SP-612 · 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 a1 and g1, the queen on e1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade places.
The bishops stand on b1 and c1; their long diagonals reach h7 and h6 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: h2.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 254.
The engine's main line opens with O-O, bringing the king out to g1.
Morozov Balance Index: 51 of 100 — class B — balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +26 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #612Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 013 · SP-612
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