Mate in 3: king to g6 (h5)
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The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 1926 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
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 h5, rook a7, pawn g3 h4.
Black: king h8, rook a1, pawn a2 h6.
4 white and 4 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 50.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 7 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on h5, the black king on h8.
It is White to move on move 50, with 17 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 2 pawns, Black 2. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, c, d, e, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: a.
The White king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
50. Kg6 Rb1 51. Ra8+ Rb8 52. Rxb8#
Why it works
- Great move! king to g6 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: rook to a8 (#1).
- Strong! rook to b8 is the sharp choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Rb1, then Ra8+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 50. Kg6 — king to g6
- Rb1 — rook to b1
- 51. Ra8+ — rook to a8 with check
- Rb8 — rook to b8
- 52. Rxb8# — rook to b8 (capture) and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Corner mate
Driven into the corner, the king runs out of squares.
The corner mate catches a king driven into the corner, where it has only three neighboring squares — all of them taken away or blocked. The corner is the worst home for a king, because the attacker needs to control the fewest squares there. Herd the king toward the corner with checks and never let it slip back toward the center. Cut off the escape routes before the final check, and the mate practically assembles itself.
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.
Rook endgame
The most common endgame — activity decides everything.
The rook endgame is the most common of all: rooks and pawns on the board. Its first law is activity — a rook behind a passed pawn beats a rook passively babysitting one. The sign of a correct plan is that your rook is attacking something, not guarding something. The typical error is locking your rook into defense: it is often better to give up a pawn and keep your rook and king active.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 014
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