Mate in 2: double attack on e4
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The tactical motive
Double attack: one move creates two threats at once.
Mate in 2: the first move creates an unstoppable threat, the second delivers mate.
Difficulty 1854 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
Black to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A double attack threatens two things at once so the opponent cannot parry both. Look for a single move — often a queen or knight — that creates two separate threats, such as a check plus an attack on a loose piece.
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 f2, rook d1 h1, bishop h6, knight g5, pawn b2 g2 h2 a3 f3 e4.
Black: king h8, rook e8, bishop c4 b6, knight c5, pawn e5 c6 g6 a7 b7 h7.
11 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 21.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 2 points of material (22 against 20; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on f2, the black king on h8.
It is Black to move on move 21, with 32 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: f.
Black hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The Black king has 1 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
21... Nxe4+ 22. Ke1 Bf2#
Why it works
- Great move! knight to e4 keeps the pressure (#1).
- Well found: bishop to f2 (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 2.
- If instead Ke1, then Bf2# and it is mate.
Move by move
- 21… Nxe4+ — knight to e4 (capture) with check
- 22. Ke1 — king to e1
- Bf2# — bishop to f2 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Two-bishop mate
The bishop pair sweeps two adjacent diagonals — the king has nowhere to hide.
The two-bishop mate rakes two adjacent diagonals: one bishop mates while the other seals off the escape squares. The bishops complement each other perfectly — living on opposite colors, together they cover an unbroken strip of the board. The pattern usually appears at the edge or in the corner where the king was pressed beforehand. Treasure the bishop pair until the attack comes — on an open board two adjacent diagonals become a solid wall.
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.
Discovered attack
A piece steps aside and opens a second attack from the piece behind it.
A discovered attack works like a curtain: one piece steps off the line and unveils the long-range piece behind it. The beauty is that the moving piece can create a second threat of its own — two attacks in one move. Look for your stacked pairs: a bishop or rook behind a knight or pawn, aimed through them at something valuable. Send the front piece to the most aggressive square — a discovery without a second threat wastes half its power.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 013
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