Mate in 3: queen to c2 (c5)
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The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 1852 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
Black to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
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 b1, queen d4, rook d1 h1, bishop e2 h6, knight g1, pawn b2 a3 e4 h5.
Black: king g8, queen c5, rook a8 f8, bishop g4, knight b8, pawn b3 d6 g6 e7 f7 h7.
11 white and 12 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 20.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 1 points of material (32 against 31; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on b1, the black king on g8.
It is Black to move on move 20, with 45 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: a.
White hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The Black king has 0 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
20... Qc2+ 21. Ka1 Rxa3+ 22. bxa3 Qa2#
Why it works
- Great move! queen to c2 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: rook to a3 (#1).
- Strong! queen to a2 is the sharp choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Ka1, then Rxa3+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 20… Qc2+ — queen to c2 with check
- 21. Ka1 — king to a1
- Rxa3+ — rook to a3 (capture) with check
- 22. bxa3 — pawn to a3 (capture)
- Qa2# — queen to a2 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.
Only move
Everything else loses — find the only move that holds.
An only move is a position where everything loses except one single continuation. You cannot play "by hand" here: run through fundamentally different defenses — run away, block, trade, counterattack — and discard the ones that fail. The hallmark of these puzzles is that the obvious moves lose quickly while the solution often looks strange. First understand exactly what the threat is — then the one saving move reveals itself.
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.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 013
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