Mate in 3: discovered attack on c2
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The tactical motive
Discovered attack: one piece steps aside, unleashing another's attack.
Double attack: one move creates two threats at once.
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 2126 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
Black to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A discovered attack fires when one piece steps aside and unmasks the piece behind it. Look for your own units that block a rook, bishop or queen: moving the front piece — ideally with a threat of its own — springs two attacks in one move.
A double attack threatens two things at once so the opponent cannot parry both. Look for a single move — often a queen or knight — that creates two separate threats, such as a check plus an attack on a loose piece.
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 c1, queen d8, rook d1 b8, pawn h2 b4 e5.
Black: king h7, rook d2, bishop c3 f5, pawn h6 f7 g7.
7 white and 7 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 36.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 8 points of material (22 against 14; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on c1, the black king on h7.
It is Black to move on move 36, with 34 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 3 pawns, Black 3. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, c, d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: b, e.
Black hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The Black king has 1 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
36... Rc2+ 37. Kb1 Rb2+ 38. Ka1 Rxh2#
Why it works
- Great move! rook to c2 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Spot on — rook to b2 (#1).
- Precise: rook to h2 is the top choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Kb1, then Rb2+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 36… Rc2+ — rook to c2 with check
- 37. Kb1 — king to b1
- Rb2+ — rook to b2 with check
- 38. Ka1 — king to a1
- Rxh2# — rook to h2 (capture) and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Discovered mate
A piece steps aside — and the one behind it delivers mate.
In a discovered mate the piece that moves is not the one that mates — the long-range piece behind it delivers the blow. The moving piece is completely free: it can land anywhere, ideally stealing the king's last squares or guarding key points. Look for your rook, bishop or queen lined up with the enemy king, with exactly one of your own pieces in between. When choosing the unveiling move, remember its second job — shutting the king's escape door.
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 015
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