Mate in 3: queen to g3
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The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 1579 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 h2, queen g7, rook h7, pawn c2 f2 g2 h3.
Black: king h4, queen a3, rook b6, pawn f4 g5 a6 h6.
7 white and 7 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 39.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 18 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on h2, the black king on h4.
It is Black to move on move 39, with 35 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, d, e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: c.
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
39... Qg3+ 40. fxg3+ fxg3+ 41. Kg1 Rb1#
Why it works
- Great move! queen to g3 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: pawn to g3 (#1).
- Strong! rook to b1 is the sharp choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead fxg3+, then fxg3+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 39… Qg3+ — queen to g3 with check
- 40. fxg3+ — pawn to g3 (capture) with check
- fxg3+ — pawn to g3 (capture) with check
- 41. Kg1 — king to g1
- Rb1# — rook to b1 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
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.
Sacrifice attack
Give up material to unleash a decisive attack.
A sacrificial attack gives up material on purpose to rip the king's shelter open and launch a decisive assault. The sac is sound when you get concrete assets in return: open lines to the king, tempi, pieces ready to pour in. The signs: a poorly sheltered king, your forces aimed at its home, defenders stranded far away. The iron rule is to calculate, not hope — once the material is gone, there is no way back.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 011
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