Mate in 2: rook to d1 (d8·5)
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The tactical motive
Hanging piece: your opponent left a piece undefended — take it.
Mate in 2: the first move creates an unstoppable threat, the second delivers mate.
Difficulty 1283 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
Black to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A hanging piece is one that is attacked and not defended, or defended too few times. Count attackers against defenders on each enemy unit; where attackers win, take it — often with an in-between move or a check to gain the extra tempo.
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 f1, queen f2, rook d1 h1, bishop a2, knight g3, pawn b2 c2 h2 a3.
Black: king c8, rook d8 e8, bishop c5, knight h4, pawn c4 h5 a7 b7 f7 g7.
10 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 21.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 7 points of material (29 against 22; 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 c8.
It is Black to move on move 21, with 41 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d, e — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
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
21... Rxd1+ 22. Qe1 Rdxe1#
Why it works
- Great move! rook to d1 keeps the pressure (#1).
- Spot on — rook to e1 (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 2.
- If instead Qe1, then Rdxe1# and it is mate.
Move by move
- 21… Rxd1+ — rook to d1 (capture) with check
- 22. Qe1 — queen to e1
- Rdxe1# — rook to e1 (capture) and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
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.
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.
Win the pinned piece
The pinned piece cannot run — attack it again and win it.
A pinned piece cannot flee, which means you can win it outright by attacking it one more time. Count attackers against defenders: if you outnumber them, the piece is yours. The best extra attacker is a pawn, since it costs less than anything it might capture. Do not rush the capture — build up the pressure first, then harvest.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 009
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