Mate in 3: queen to h7 (d3·3)
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The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 1755 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 h1, queen d3, bishop g3, knight c3 g5, pawn a2 b2 g2 h2.
Black: king g8, queen f6, rook a8, bishop b6 d7, knight c6, pawn d6 a7 b7 c7 g7.
9 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 20.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 6 points of material (22 against 28; 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 g8.
It is White to move on move 20, with 43 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: c, d.
Black hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The White king has 0 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
20. Qh7+ Kf8 21. Qh8+ Ke7 22. Nd5#
Why it works
- Great move! queen to h7 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: queen to h8 (#1).
- Strong! knight to d5 is the sharp choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Kf8, then Qh8+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 20. Qh7+ — queen to h7 with check
- Kf8 — king to f8
- 21. Qh8+ — queen to h8 with check
- Ke7 — king to e7
- 22. Nd5# — knight to d5 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Knight mate
The knight lands the killing blow from its unique angle.
In a knight mate the final blow comes from the knight — the only piece whose check can never be blocked. That makes it lethal against a cramped king: only a king move or capturing the knight itself can help. The sign: the squares around the king are occupied or covered, and there is a hop from which the knight checks while staying untouchable. Bring the knight over early — it is slower than the long-range pieces, but its strike cannot be parried.
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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