Mate in 3: rook to d5
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The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 1616 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 f1, queen f3, rook d1 e1, knight e6, pawn a2 f2 g2.
Black: king d7, queen h4, rook a8 g8, bishop f8, knight g4 d5, pawn c6 a7 b7 e7.
8 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 31.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 7 points of material (25 against 32; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on f1, the black king on d7.
It is White to move on move 31, with 40 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 3 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: b, c, e.
The White king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
31. Rxd5+ cxd5 32. Qxd5+ Ke8 33. Nc7#
Why it works
- Great move! rook to d5 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: queen to d5 (#1).
- Strong! knight to c7 is the sharp choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead cxd5, then Qxd5+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 31. Rxd5+ — rook to d5 (capture) with check
- cxd5 — pawn to d5 (capture)
- 32. Qxd5+ — queen to d5 (capture) with check
- Ke8 — king to e8
- 33. Nc7# — knight to c7 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 012
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