Mate in 3: rook to g3 (f3·2)
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The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 2079 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
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 g1, queen a4 c8, rook b1 c2, knight b6, pawn f2 g3 c4.
Black: king h8, queen h3, rook f3 f8, bishop g7, pawn e4 a6 g6 h7.
9 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 34.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 8 points of material (34 against 26; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g1, the black king on h8.
It is Black to move on move 34, with 41 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 3 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: c, f.
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
34... Rxg3+ 35. fxg3 Bd4+ 36. Rf2 Bxf2#
Why it works
- Great move! rook to g3 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: bishop to d4 (#1).
- Strong! bishop to f2 is the sharp choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead fxg3, then Bd4+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 34… Rxg3+ — rook to g3 (capture) with check
- 35. fxg3 — pawn to g3 (capture)
- Bd4+ — bishop to d4 with check
- 36. Rf2 — rook to f2
- Bxf2# — bishop to f2 (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.
Sacrifice attack
Give up material to unleash a decisive attack.
A sacrificial attack gives up material on purpose to rip the king's shelter open and launch a decisive assault. The sac is sound when you get concrete assets in return: open lines to the king, tempi, pieces ready to pour in. The signs: a poorly sheltered king, your forces aimed at its home, defenders stranded far away. The iron rule is to calculate, not hope — once the material is gone, there is no way back.
Counter-strike
Don't defend — answer the threat with a bigger one.
The counter-strike: instead of defending against the threat, you answer with a bigger threat of your own. While your opponent grabs a pawn, you deliver mate — the arithmetic favors you. Look for a counter when direct defenses fail: do you have a check, an attack on the queen, a mating threat? The beginner's error is meeting every threat with a reflexive defense without checking the counterattacking resources first.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 015
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