Mate in 3: queen to h7 (d3)
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The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 1463 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
White 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 g1, queen d3, rook a1, bishop c2, pawn a2 b2 c3 d4 g4 e5 h5.
Black: king g8, queen e7, rook f3 a8, knight d5, pawn g5 c6 e6 h6 a7 b7 g7.
11 white and 12 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 24.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 5 points of material (24 against 29; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g1, the black king on g8.
It is White to move on move 24, with 30 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 7. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): f — 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
24. Qh7+ Kf7 25. Bg6+ Kf8 26. Qh8#
Why it works
- Great move! queen to h7 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: bishop to g6 (#1).
- Strong! queen to h8 is the sharp choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Kf7, then Bg6+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 24. Qh7+ — queen to h7 with check
- Kf7 — king to f7
- 25. Bg6+ — bishop to g6 with check
- Kf8 — king to f8
- 26. Qh8# — queen to h8 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.
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.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 011
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