Mate in 3: rook to h1 (h5)
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The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 1445 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 g1, rook c1 d1, bishop b1 d6, knight c3, pawn f2 g3 a4 e4 b5.
Black: king f6, rook h5 h8, bishop e6, knight g4, pawn b6 c6 f7.
11 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 33.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 5 points of material (24 against 19; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g1, the black king on f6.
It is Black to move on move 33, with 38 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 3. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: a, e, g.
White hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The Black king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
33... Rh1+ 34. Kg2 R8h2+ 35. Kf3 Rxf2#
Why it works
- Great move! rook to h1 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: rook to h2 (#1).
- Strong! rook to f2 is the sharp choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Kg2, then R8h2+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 33… Rh1+ — rook to h1 with check
- 34. Kg2 — king to g2
- R8h2+ — rook to h2 with check
- 35. Kf3 — king to f3
- Rxf2# — rook to f2 (capture) 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.
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.
Skewer
A line attack forces the valuable piece to move, exposing the one behind it.
A skewer is a pin turned inside out: the valuable piece stands in front and something cheaper hides behind it. The big piece must step aside, and you collect the one that was sheltering in its shadow. Scan for the enemy king or queen sharing a file, rank or diagonal with another enemy piece. The deadliest version comes with check — the king moves, the rook behind it dies.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 011
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