Mate in 3: queen to h5 (d1·2)
c9-24649naming 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 g1, queen d1, rook c1 f1, bishop b1, knight g3, pawn a2 b2 h2 e3.
Black: king e8, queen d8, rook g7 h8, bishop b8, pawn b6 b7 d7 e7 h7.
10 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 15.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 2 points of material (29 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 e8.
It is White to move on move 15, with 45 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c, f, g — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: d.
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
15. Qh5+ Rg6 16. Bxg6+ hxg6 17. Qxh8#
Why it works
- Great move! queen to h5 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Spot on — bishop to g6 (#1).
- Precise: queen to h8 is the top choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Rg6, then Bxg6+ and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 15. Qh5+ — queen to h5 with check
- Rg6 — rook to g6
- 16. Bxg6+ — bishop to g6 (capture) with check
- hxg6 — pawn to g6 (capture)
- 17. Qxh8# — queen to h8 (capture) 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.
Win the pinned piece
The pinned piece cannot run — attack it again and win it.
A pinned piece cannot flee, which means you can win it outright by attacking it one more time. Count attackers against defenders: if you outnumber them, the piece is yours. The best extra attacker is a pawn, since it costs less than anything it might capture. Do not rush the capture — build up the pressure first, then harvest.
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 #332.
SP-332 · 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 c1 and f1, the queen on d1.
The kingside rook already stands on f1, so castling short moves only the king, from e1 to g1.
The bishops stand on b1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a7 once the c- and f-pawns step aside.
The second rank carries 2 pawns with no defender at all: b2, g2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 348.
The engine's main line opens with f4.
Morozov Balance Index: 1 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +59 centipawns for White (depth 45, 400 000 000 nodes).
In 50 self-play games White scored 60.0% (95% CI 46.2–72.4%).
Explore position #332Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 012 · SP-332
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