Mate in 3: rook to h3 (h2)
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The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 1718 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
Black 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 f3, rook e1 d3, knight c5, pawn a4 d4 g4 h5.
Black: king f7, rook b2 h2, pawn d5 c6 f6 h6 a7 g7.
8 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 36.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 1 points of material (17 against 16; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on f3, the black king on f7.
It is Black to move on move 36, with 29 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): b, e — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
The Black king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
36... Rh3+ 37. Kf4 Rf2+ 38. Rf3 Rfxf3#
Why it works
- Great move! rook to h3 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: rook to f2 (#1).
- Precise: rook to f3 is the top choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Kf4, then Rf2+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 36… Rh3+ — rook to h3 with check
- 37. Kf4 — king to f4
- Rf2+ — rook to f2 with check
- 38. Rf3 — rook to f3
- Rfxf3# — rook to f3 (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.
Win the pinned piece
The pinned piece cannot run — attack it again and win it.
A pinned piece cannot flee, which means you can win it outright by attacking it one more time. Count attackers against defenders: if you outnumber them, the piece is yours. The best extra attacker is a pawn, since it costs less than anything it might capture. Do not rush the capture — build up the pressure first, then harvest.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 013
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