Mate in 2: bishop to b5 (d3)
c9-27701naming 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 1440 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 d2, queen a7, rook c1 g1, bishop d3, knight a1 c6, pawn a2 e2 g2 c3 f3 b4 d4.
Black: king c8, queen h6, rook d8 h8, knight d5, pawn f4 b5 c5 d6 e7 f7.
14 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 19.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 7 points of material (35 against 28; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on d2, the black king on c8.
It is White to move on move 19, with 48 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): h — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
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
19. Bxb5 cxb4 20. Ba6#
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to b5 keeps the pressure (#1).
- Spot on — bishop to a6 (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 2.
- If instead cxb4, then Ba6# and it is mate.
Move by move
- 19. Bxb5 — bishop to b5 (capture)
- cxb4 — pawn to b4 (capture)
- 20. Ba6# — bishop to a6 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
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 #280.
SP-280 · ThroneScout — A knight starts on the edge (a/h) and the king sits centrally on d or e; the mirror twin stays in this family too.
The king starts on d1, the rooks on c1 and g1, the queen on h1.
Castling long simply swaps the two pieces: the king on d1 and the rook on c1 trade places.
The bishops stand on b1 and e1; their long diagonals reach h7 and a5 once the c- and d-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: b2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneScout family; read right to left it becomes position 589.
The engine's main line opens with g3.
Morozov Balance Index: 13 of 100 — class D — largest edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +41 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #280Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 011 · SP-280
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