Mate in 2: pawn to h4 (h5)
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The tactical motive
Mate in 2: the first move creates an unstoppable threat, the second delivers mate.
Difficulty 1660 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 g3, rook c3, bishop a4, pawn f3 e4 g4 c6.
Black: king g7, rook a2, bishop g1, pawn g5 h5 e6 f6.
7 white and 7 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 49.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 12 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on g3, the black king on g7.
It is Black to move on move 49, with 28 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a, b, d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: c.
The Black king has 7 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
49... h4+ 50. Kh3 Rh2#
Why it works
- Great move! pawn to h4 keeps the pressure (#1).
- Well found: rook to h2 (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 2.
- If instead Kh3, then Rh2# and it is mate.
Move by move
- 49… h4+ — pawn to h4 with check
- 50. Kh3 — king to h3
- Rh2# — rook to h2 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.
Breakthrough
A pawn sacrifice tears the chain open and lets a passer through.
A breakthrough is a pawn sacrifice that rips the opponent's chain open and creates an unstoppable passer. Look for it where the pawns are locked against each other: often two pawns are given up so the third one slips through. Check the square rule — can the enemy king catch the new passer? If not, sacrifice with confidence; the classic error is breaking through while his king stands right there eating everything.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 013
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