Mate in 2: queen to b5 (d3·2)
c9-27993naming 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 1320 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 d1, queen d3, rook g1, bishop e5, knight f3 g6, pawn a2 d2 e2 h2 g3 f4 c6.
Black: king b8, queen h3, rook c8, bishop a8, knight c7, pawn b4 a5 h6 e7.
13 white and 9 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 (30 against 24; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on d1, the black king on b8.
It is White to move on move 27, with 46 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 4. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for White: b.
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
27. Qb5+ Ka7 28. Bd4#
Why it works
- Great move! queen to b5 keeps the pressure (#1).
- Spot on — bishop to d4 (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 2.
- If instead Ka7, then Bd4# and it is mate.
Move by move
- 27. Qb5+ — queen to b5 with check
- Ka7 — king to a7
- 28. Bd4# — bishop to d4 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.
Absolute pin
A piece is pinned against its king — it cannot legally move.
An absolute pin freezes a piece on the line between its own king and your long-range attacker: moving it is simply illegal. The pattern is three units on one straight line — your bishop, rook or queen, an enemy piece, and the enemy king behind it. A pinned piece neither attacks nor defends anything: treat it as if it were off the board. Pile up on it, ideally with a pawn, because running away is against the rules.
About this position
These pieces come from starting position #867.
SP-867 · ThroneGuard — Both knights start on inner files (b–g) while the king sits centrally on d or e — one of 204 positions filed here.
The king starts on d1, the rooks on c1 and e1, the queen on b1.
Castling long simply swaps the two pieces: the king on d1 and the rook on c1 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: f2.
The setup belongs to the ThroneGuard family; read right to left it becomes position 83.
The engine's main line opens with b4.
Morozov Balance Index: 78 of 100 — class A — most balanced. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +18 centipawns for White (depth 44, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #867Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 010 · SP-867
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