Mate in 1: double attack on g4
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The tactical motive
Double attack: one move creates two threats at once.
Mate in 1: find the move after which the enemy king has no escape.
Difficulty 1248 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
Black to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A double attack threatens two things at once so the opponent cannot parry both. Look for a single move — often a queen or knight — that creates two separate threats, such as a check plus an attack on a loose piece.
A mate in one hides among forcing checks. Run through every check you can give: does it cover all the king's escape squares, is the checking piece safe or supported, and can nothing block or capture it? If yes, that is the mate.
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 h3, queen e7, rook g4, bishop g3, pawn b2 h2 a3.
Black: king g6, rook h8, bishop a8, pawn c5 f5 h5 a6 e6 g7.
7 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 38.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 6 points of material (20 against 14; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on h3, the black king on g6.
It is Black to move on move 38, with 4 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle. Black are in check right now, so every reply must answer the check.
White keeps 3 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: b.
The Black king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
38... hxg4#
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to g4 keeps the pressure (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 1.
Move by move
- 38… hxg4# — pawn to g4 (capture) and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Double-check mate
Double check leaves only king moves — and there are none.
The double-check mate ends the game with check from two pieces at once, leaving the king with nothing. Neither capturing nor blocking works against a double check — only a king move, and here there is none. Look for a discovered check where the front piece checks too: it may even land on a defended square with total impunity. That is why the double check crowns so many of the most beautiful sacrificial combinations.
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 1
Checkmate in a single move — find it.
Mate in one: the combination is over, only the final precise shot remains. The method is simple — list every check you have and test the three escapes against each: king moves, blocks, and capturing the checker. If none of them works, it is mate. The classic blunder is falling in love with the first check you see and missing the one escape hatch.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 008
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