Mate in 3: queen to h5
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The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 921 ShuffleRating — for beginners taking their first steps in Chess960 tactics.
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 g1, queen d1, rook a1, bishop b2 g6, knight d2, pawn a2 c2 g2 h2 b3 e3 d4 f4.
Black: king h8, queen d8, rook f6 a8, bishop e7 c8, knight d7, pawn d5 f5 c6 e6 a7 b7 g7.
14 white and 14 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 16.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 4 points of material (31 against 35; 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 h8.
It is White to move on move 16, with 36 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 8 pawns, Black 7. No file is fully open, so the heavy pieces have to be pried in.
The White king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
16. Qh5+ Kg8 17. Qh7+ Kf8 18. Qh8#
Why it works
- Great move! queen to h5 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: queen to h7 (#1).
- Strong! queen to h8 is the sharp choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Kg8, then Qh7+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 16. Qh5+ — queen to h5 with check
- Kg8 — king to g8
- 17. Qh7+ — queen to h7 with check
- Kf8 — king to f8
- 18. Qh8# — queen to h8 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.
Relative pin
A piece shields a more valuable one behind it — moving it loses material.
In a relative pin the piece shields not its king but something valuable behind it, usually the queen. Moving is legal but costly, because the piece behind falls. Look for three units on one line: your long-range piece, a cheaper enemy piece, and an expensive one hiding behind. Beware the classic trap — a relatively pinned piece can still move with check or a bigger threat, so verify before you cash in.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 005
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