Mate in 3: bishop to f7
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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 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, queen e5, rook b1 f1, bishop g1 h5, knight c1 e8, pawn a2 c2 h2 d3 b4 e4 f4.
Black: king g8, queen h3, rook f7 b8, bishop b7 d8, knight h4 c8, pawn f5 b6 a7 c7 d7 e7 h7.
15 white and 15 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 13.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 38 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on e1, the black king on g8.
It is White to move on move 13, with 49 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 7. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): g — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
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
13. Bxf7+ Kxf7 14. Qg7+ Ke6 15. Qg8#
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to f7 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: queen to g7 (#1).
- Precise: queen to g8 is the top choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Kxf7, then Qg7+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 13. Bxf7+ — bishop to f7 (capture) with check
- Kxf7 — king to f7 (capture)
- 14. Qg7+ — queen to g7 with check
- Ke6 — king to e6
- 15. Qg8# — queen to g8 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.
Decoy
A sacrifice lures the king or a piece onto a fatal square.
A decoy is the mirror image of deflection: you sacrifice to drag the king or a piece onto a fatal square. The classic is a queen or rook sac whose capture pulls the king into a knight fork, a discovered check or mate. Find the square where the target will be hit, then find the offer it cannot refuse. Calculate to the very end — a decoy only works when the follow-up is forced.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #589.
SP-589 · ThroneScout — A central king (d or e), but with a knight posted out on the a- or h-file.
The king starts on e1, the rooks on b1 and f1, the queen on a1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from e1 to g1.
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 ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 280.
The engine's main line opens with f3.
Morozov Balance Index: 21 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +36 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #589Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 012 · SP-589
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