Mate in 3: queen to h7
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The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 1442 ShuffleRating — club-player level.
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 h1, queen h6, rook f4 h4, bishop c2, pawn a2 g2 h3 f6.
Black: king h8, queen c3, rook d8 g8, bishop e6, knight f8, pawn c6 g6 a7 b7 f7 h7.
9 white and 12 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 35.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 5 points of material (26 against 31; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on h1, the black king on h8.
It is White to move on move 35, with 32 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. Half-open for White: b, c.
The White king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
35. Qxh7+ Nxh7 36. Rxh7+ Kxh7 37. Rh4#
Why it works
- Great move! queen to h7 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: rook to h7 (#1).
- Strong! rook to h4 is the sharp choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Nxh7, then Rxh7+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 35. Qxh7+ — queen to h7 (capture) with check
- Nxh7 — knight to h7 (capture)
- 36. Rxh7+ — rook to h7 (capture) with check
- Kxh7 — king to h7 (capture)
- 37. Rh4# — rook to h4 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.
Royal fork
A fork with check: the king must move, and the second piece is lost.
A royal fork is a fork with check — one of the two targets is the king itself. The check must be answered first, so nobody is left to rescue the second piece. Look for squares where your piece gives check and simultaneously attacks an undefended queen or rook. It is the most reliable fork of all, because your opponent literally has no choice.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 011
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