Mate in 2: queen to c3
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The tactical motive
Mate in 2: the first move creates an unstoppable threat, the second delivers mate.
Difficulty 1776 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
Black 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 c1, queen e2, rook d1 h1, bishop b3 e3, knight d2 f3, pawn a2 b2 f2 g2 c3 h3 d4.
Black: king b8, queen a5, rook d8 h8, bishop f5 e7, knight f6 d7, pawn c6 e6 h6 a7 b7 f7 g7.
15 white and 15 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 16.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 38 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on c1, the black king on b8.
It is Black to move on move 16, with 55 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 7. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in. Half-open for Black: d.
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
16... Qxc3+ 17. bxc3 Ba3#
Why it works
- Great move! queen to c3 keeps the pressure (#1).
- Well found: bishop to a3 (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 2.
- If instead bxc3, then Ba3# and it is mate.
Move by move
- 16… Qxc3+ — queen to c3 (capture) with check
- 17. bxc3 — pawn to c3 (capture)
- Ba3# — bishop to a3 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Boden's mate
Two bishops cross their diagonals over a king blocked by its own pieces.
Boden's mate crosses two bishop diagonals over a king blocked by its own pieces. The classic victim has castled on the queenside: its own rook and pawns have stolen the escape squares, and the bishops slash crosswise. The trigger is usually a queen sacrifice that blasts open the second diagonal. Whenever the enemy king is boxed in by its friends, ask whether both of your bishops can reach it on crossing diagonals.
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.
Sacrifice attack
Give up material to unleash a decisive attack.
A sacrificial attack gives up material on purpose to rip the king's shelter open and launch a decisive assault. The sac is sound when you get concrete assets in return: open lines to the king, tempi, pieces ready to pour in. The signs: a poorly sheltered king, your forces aimed at its home, defenders stranded far away. The iron rule is to calculate, not hope — once the material is gone, there is no way back.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 013
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