Mate in 2: knight to f6 (d7)
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The tactical motive
Mate in 2: the first move creates an unstoppable threat, the second delivers mate.
Difficulty 1163 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
White to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
Mate in two usually opens with a forcing move — a check, a capture or an unstoppable threat — that strips the king of squares or defenders, so the follow-up mate becomes unavoidable. Look for the first move that leaves the opponent only losing replies.
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 f3, rook g4, bishop b5, knight d7, pawn h4 c6.
Black: king h7, rook e1 c7, bishop b4, pawn a5 h6 f7.
6 white and 7 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 45.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 3 points of material (13 against 16; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on f3, the black king on h7.
It is White to move on move 45, with 29 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 2 pawns, Black 3. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, d, e, g — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: a, f.
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
45. Nf6+ Kh8 46. Rg8#
Why it works
- Great move! knight to f6 keeps the pressure (#1).
- Well found: rook to g8 (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 2.
- If instead Kh8, then Rg8# and it is mate.
Move by move
- 45. Nf6+ — knight to f6 with check
- Kh8 — king to h8
- 46. Rg8# — rook to g8 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 2
A forced checkmate in two moves.
Mate in two: your move, any reply, then the mating blow. Start with the most forcing first moves — checks and sacrifices that shrink the opponent's options to almost nothing. Against every single reply you must have a mate ready, so check them all without exception. The common failure is analyzing the pretty defense and forgetting the boring one.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 007
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