Mate in 3: rook to d8 (d7·3)
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The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 1680 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
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 e6, rook d7, pawn c6 g6.
Black: king c8, rook d8, knight e3, pawn a2 c7.
4 white and 5 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 50.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 3 points of material (7 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 e6, the black king on c8.
It is White to move on move 50, with 17 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 2 pawns, Black 2. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, d, e, f, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: a.
The White king has 4 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
50. Rxd8+ Kxd8 51. g7 a1=Q 52. g8=Q#
Why it works
- Great move! rook to d8 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: pawn to g7 (#1).
- Precise: pawn to g8 is the top choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Kxd8, then g7 and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 50. Rxd8+ — rook to d8 (capture) with check
- Kxd8 — king to d8 (capture)
- 51. g7 — pawn to g7
- a1=Q — pawn to a1
- 52. g8=Q# — pawn to g8 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Promotion mate
The pawn promotes — and the new piece mates on the spot.
In a promotion mate the pawn takes its final step and the newborn piece mates on the spot. Sometimes the hero is a knight rather than a queen — it checks from the promotion square in a way no queen can. The sign: the enemy king lingers near the promotion square while your pieces already control its escape routes. When counting pawn races, always check whether the promotion itself is mate — that gains you a full tempo in the evaluation.
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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