Mate in 3: queen to h4 (e4)
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The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 2234 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
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 g2, queen e4, bishop f3, pawn f2 e3 g3 h3.
Black: king h6, queen b2, rook a2, pawn b6 e6 a7 f7 g7.
7 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 39.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 3 points of material (16 against 19; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g2, the black king on h6.
It is White to move on move 39, with 29 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c, d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: a, b.
The White king has 4 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
39. Qh4+ Kg6 40. Bh5+ Kf5 41. Qf4#
Why it works
- Great move! queen to h4 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: bishop to h5 (#1).
- Strong! queen to f4 is the sharp choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Kg6, then Bh5+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 39. Qh4+ — queen to h4 with check
- Kg6 — king to g6
- 40. Bh5+ — bishop to h5 with check
- Kf5 — king to f5
- 41. Qf4# — queen to f4 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Supported queen mate
The queen delivers mate face to face, protected by a friend.
The supported queen mate is the most common pattern of all: the queen lands next to the king and mates because a friendly piece or pawn protects her. The king is helpless — capturing is impossible, and the queen covers every neighboring square herself. Hunt for a protected square beside the enemy king: a knight, bishop or pawn eyeing it turns her invasion into mate. Verify one thing — that the square really is defended, or the king eats her.
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.
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.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 015
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