Mate in 1: queen to d3 (e4)
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The tactical motive
Mate in 1: find the move after which the enemy king has no escape.
Difficulty 1858 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
Black to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A mate in one hides among forcing checks. Run through every check you can give: does it cover all the king's escape squares, is the checking piece safe or supported, and can nothing block or capture it? If yes, that is the mate.
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 f1, queen b4, rook g2, bishop c5, knight d6, pawn f2 h2 f4 a5 e5.
Black: king g8, queen e4, rook d8, knight f3, pawn e6 b7 f7 g7 h7.
10 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 29.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 3 points of material (25 against 22; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on f1, the black king on g8.
It is Black to move on move 29, with 40 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c, d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: a.
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
29... Qd3#
Why it works
- Great move! queen to d3 keeps the pressure (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 1.
Move by move
- 29… Qd3# — queen to d3 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Mate in 1
Checkmate in a single move — find it.
Mate in one: the combination is over, only the final precise shot remains. The method is simple — list every check you have and test the three escapes against each: king moves, blocks, and capturing the checker. If none of them works, it is mate. The classic blunder is falling in love with the first check you see and missing the one escape hatch.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 013
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