Mate in 3: queen to g7
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The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 1458 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
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 a1, queen d7, rook e1 g1, pawn c2 h3 a4.
Black: king h8, queen b4, rook g8, bishop g7, pawn c3 f5 a6 d6 h7.
7 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 35.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 22 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on a1, the black king on h8.
It is White to move on move 35, with 36 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 3 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, e, g — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: d, f.
The White king has 1 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
35. Qxg7+ Rxg7 36. Re8+ Rg8 37. Rgxg8#
Why it works
- Great move! queen to g7 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: rook to e8 (#1).
- Precise: rook to g8 is the top choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Rxg7, then Re8+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 35. Qxg7+ — queen to g7 (capture) with check
- Rxg7 — rook to g7 (capture)
- 36. Re8+ — rook to e8 with check
- Rg8 — rook to g8
- 37. Rgxg8# — rook to g8 (capture) and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Corner mate
Driven into the corner, the king runs out of squares.
The corner mate catches a king driven into the corner, where it has only three neighboring squares — all of them taken away or blocked. The corner is the worst home for a king, because the attacker needs to control the fewest squares there. Herd the king toward the corner with checks and never let it slip back toward the center. Cut off the escape routes before the final check, and the mate practically assembles 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.
Mate defense
Mate is threatened — parry it and stay on top.
Mate defense: your opponent is one move from mating you — but it is your turn, and that changes everything. Find the defense that kills the mating threat while keeping your advantage: often a check or a counter-threat that leaves no time for the mate. First name the exact square where the mate would land — otherwise you are defending blind. The mistake is playing a "defensive" move that does not actually remove the threat.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 011
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