Mate in 2: rook to a8 (a7·7)
li-06RCvnaming tag (square·N)The tactical motive
Mate in 2: the first move creates an unstoppable threat, the second delivers mate.
Difficulty 1509 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
White to move — find the best continuation
Position on the board
White: king b2, rook a7, bishop c3, knight c5, pawn c2 b3 f3 a4 g4 h4.
Black: king c8, queen e2, rook e8, bishop f4, knight d6, pawn c6 h6 g7.
10 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 33.
Solution & explanation
Main line
33. Ra8+ Kc7 34. Ba5#
Why it works
- Great move! rook to a8 keeps the pressure (#1).
- Well found: bishop to a5 (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 2.
- If instead Kc7, then Ba5# and it is mate.
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.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 011
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