Mate in 3: fork on b5
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The tactical motive
Fork: one piece attacks two targets at once — they can't both be saved.
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 2246 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
Black to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A fork is one piece attacking two targets at once. Look for a knight, pawn or queen move that lands where it hits the king (or a bigger piece) and a second undefended unit on the same turn — the opponent can save only one.
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 a3, queen a8, bishop d6.
Black: king c4, rook b4, knight d4, pawn c5.
3 white and 4 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 54.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 3 points of material (12 against 9; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on a3, the black king on c4.
It is Black to move on move 54, with 19 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, d, e, f, g, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
The Black king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
54... Nb5+ 55. Ka2 Nc3+ 56. Ka1 Rb1#
Why it works
- Great move! knight to b5 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: knight to c3 (#1).
- Strong! rook to b1 is the sharp choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Ka2, then Nc3+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 54… Nb5+ — knight to b5 with check
- 55. Ka2 — king to a2
- Nc3+ — knight to c3 with check
- 56. Ka1 — king to a1
- Rb1# — rook to b1 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Arabian mate
Rook and knight — the oldest mate: the rook strikes next to the cornered king.
The Arabian mate is the oldest named pattern: the king is driven into the corner and the rook mates right next to it, guarded by a knight. The geometry is exact: king on h8, rook striking from h7, knight on f6 both protecting the rook and covering g8. The knight is irreplaceable — only it can guard the rook at point-blank range and hold the escape square at once. Look for the pattern when your knight is anchored two steps from the enemy corner.
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).
Pack 015
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