Mate in 3: rook to b8
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The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 1586 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 b2, rook f1 b7, knight h5, pawn g2 h2.
Black: king g8, queen d5, rook e5 a8, bishop g6, knight e4, pawn h4 d6 a7 f7 h7.
7 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 28.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 6 points of material (24 against 30; 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 g8.
It is White to move on move 28, with 46 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 2 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, c, e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: a, d, f.
The White king has 1 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
28. Rb8+ Rxb8 29. Qxb8+ Re8 30. Qxe8#
Why it works
- Great move! rook to b8 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: queen to b8 (#1).
- Strong! queen to e8 is the sharp choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Rxb8, then Qxb8+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 28. Rb8+ — rook to b8 with check
- Rxb8 — rook to b8 (capture)
- 29. Qxb8+ — queen to b8 (capture) with check
- Re8 — rook to e8
- 30. Qxe8# — queen to e8 (capture) 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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