Mate in 2: queen to h8 (h4)
c9-25987naming 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 2: the first move creates an unstoppable threat, the second delivers mate.
Difficulty 1220 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
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.
Mate in two usually opens with a forcing move — a check, a capture or an unstoppable threat — that strips the king of squares or defenders, so the follow-up mate becomes unavoidable. Look for the first move that leaves the opponent only losing replies.
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 f2, queen h4, rook d6, bishop e2, knight e1, pawn a2 c2 h2 f3 c5.
Black: king f8, queen f5, knight d2 b4, pawn b5 e5 f6 f7.
10 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 27.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 6 points of material (25 against 19; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on f2, the black king on f8.
It is White to move on move 27, with 43 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d, g — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: b, 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. Qh8+ Ke7 28. Qd8#
Why it works
- Great move! queen to h8 keeps the pressure (#1).
- Well found: queen to d8 (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 2.
- If instead Ke7, then Qd8# and it is mate.
Move by move
- 27. Qh8+ — queen to h8 with check
- Ke7 — king to e7
- 28. Qd8# — queen to d8 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 2
A forced checkmate in two moves.
Mate in two: your move, any reply, then the mating blow. Start with the most forcing first moves — checks and sacrifices that shrink the opponent's options to almost nothing. Against every single reply you must have a mate ready, so check them all without exception. The common failure is analyzing the pretty defense and forgetting the boring one.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #465.
SP-465 · BastionGuard — King shifted to c or f, knights kept clear of the edges — 168 positions in all.
The king starts on f1, the rooks on b1 and g1, the queen on h1.
Castling short simply swaps the two pieces: the king on f1 and the rook on g1 trade places.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: d2.
The setup belongs to the BastionGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 683.
The engine's main line opens with g4.
Morozov Balance Index: 7 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +46 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #465Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 008 · SP-465
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