Mate in 3: bishop to a5 (d2)
c9-23762naming 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 1630 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 e1, rook g7, bishop d2 c6, knight c1 b3, pawn a2 b2 e2 f3 c4.
Black: king d8, rook h8, bishop f5, pawn f4 c5 e5 h5 d6 a7.
11 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 32.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 8 points of material (22 against 14; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on e1, the black king on d8.
It is White to move on move 32, with 39 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): g — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: d, h.
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
32. Ba5+ Kc8 33. Rxa7 h4 34. Ra8#
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to a5 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Spot on — rook to a7 (#1).
- Precise: rook to a8 is the top choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Kc8, then Rxa7 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 32. Ba5+ — bishop to a5 with check
- Kc8 — king to c8
- 33. Rxa7 — rook to a7 (capture)
- h4 — pawn to h4
- 34. Ra8# — rook to a8 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.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #86.
SP-86 · ThroneScout — The king starts on d or e while at least one knight begins in a corner.
The king starts on e1, the rooks on d1 and g1, the queen on h1.
The queenside rook already stands on d1, so castling long moves only the king, from e1 to c1.
The bishops stand on c1 and f1; their long diagonals reach h6 and a6 once the d- and e-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: a2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 870.
The engine's main line opens with d4, putting a pawn straight into the centre.
Morozov Balance Index: 57 of 100 — class B — balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +34 centipawns for White (depth 47, 400 000 000 nodes).
In 50 self-play games White scored 50.0% (95% CI 36.6–63.4%).
Explore position #86Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 012 · SP-86
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