Mate in 3: pawn to g5 (h4)
c9-28502naming 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 h2, queen f7, rook f1, bishop h5, pawn a2 b2 f2 g2 d3 h4.
Black: king h6, queen g5, pawn e5.
10 white and 3 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 32.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 13 points of material (23 against 10; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on h2, the black king on h6.
It is White to move on move 32, with 44 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 1. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: e.
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
32. hxg5+ Kxg5 33. Qg6+ Kh4 34. Qg4#
Why it works
- Best move. pawn to g5 is exactly what the engine plays (#2).
- Spot on — queen to g6 (#1).
- Precise: queen to g4 is the top choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Kxg5, then Qg6+ and you win the queen.
Move by move
- 32. hxg5+ — pawn to g5 (capture) with check
- Kxg5 — king to g5 (capture)
- 33. Qg6+ — queen to g6 with check
- Kh4 — king to h4
- 34. Qg4# — queen to g4 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 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.
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 #125.
SP-125 · BastionScout — King shifted to c or f, with a knight committed to the corner from move one.
The king starts on f1, the rooks on c1 and h1, the queen on b1.
Castling ends where it always does: king to g1 and rook to f1 on the short side, king to c1 and rook to d1 on the long one.
The bishops stand on d1 and g1; their long diagonals reach h5 and a7 once the e- and f-pawns step aside.
One second-rank pawn starts with no defender at all: d2.
The setup belongs to the BastionScout family; read right to left it becomes position 840.
The engine's main line opens with b4.
Morozov Balance Index: 47 of 100 — class C — noticeable edge. Engine evaluation of the starting position: +27 centipawns for White (depth 46, 400 000 000 nodes).
Explore position #125Provenance
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Pack 013 · SP-125
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