Mate in 3: rook to h3 (g3)
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The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 1219 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
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 h1, queen a8, rook a1.
Black: king f5, rook f2 g3, pawn f3.
3 white and 4 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 50.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 3 points of material (14 against 11; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on h1, the black king on f5.
It is Black to move on move 50, with 23 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 0 pawns, Black 1. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, b, c, d, e, g, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
The Black king has 7 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
50... Rh3+ 51. Kg1 Rg2+ 52. Kf1 Rh1#
Why it works
- Great move! rook to h3 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: rook to g2 (#1).
- Strong! rook to h1 is the sharp choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Kg1, then Rg2+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 50… Rh3+ — rook to h3 with check
- 51. Kg1 — king to g1
- Rg2+ — rook to g2 with check
- 52. Kf1 — king to f1
- Rh1# — rook to h1 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Ladder mate
Two heavy pieces climb line by line, cutting off every retreat.
The ladder mate uses two heavy pieces climbing rung by rung: one cuts the king off along a line, the other checks on the next line, driving him toward the edge. It is the classic two-rook technique — check, the king retreats one rank, the other rook checks, until mate on the last rank. The only danger is the king creeping close enough to attack one of your rooks. If it does, simply slide that rook to the far side of the same line.
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 008
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