Mate in 3: queen to a3 (a7)
c9-26481naming 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 g3, queen a7, rook d1 e5, bishop b3, knight f5, pawn a2 h4.
Black: king f8, queen c8, rook h8, bishop g5, pawn c3 h5 f6 d7.
8 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 36.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 6 points of material (27 against 21; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g3, the black king on f8.
It is White to move on move 36, with 60 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 2 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, e, g — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: c, d, f.
The White king has 5 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
36. Qa3+ Qc5 37. Qxc5+ d6 38. Qxd6#
Why it works
- Best move. queen to a3 is exactly what the engine plays (#2).
- Spot on — queen to c5 (#1).
- Precise: queen to d6 is the top choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Qc5, then Qxc5+ and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 36. Qa3+ — queen to a3 with check
- Qc5 — queen to c5
- 37. Qxc5+ — queen to c5 (capture) with check
- d6 — pawn to d6
- 38. Qxd6# — queen to d6 (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 #32.
SP-32 · RampartGuard — A b- or g-file king and two knights on inner files (b–g).
The king starts on g1, the rooks on f1 and h1, the queen on e1.
The king already stands on its castled square, so castling short moves only the rook, from h1 to f1.
A bishop starts in the corner on a1: it has a single diagonal, which the b-pawn unlocks, running out to h8.
The pawn on g2 is defended by the king alone — the same soft spot f2 is in the classical setup.
The setup belongs to the RampartGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 927.
The engine's main line opens with h4.
Morozov Balance Index: 4 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +50 centipawns for White (depth 49, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #32Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 012 · SP-32
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