Mate in 1: double attack on e1
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The tactical motive
Double attack: one move creates two threats at once.
Mate in 1: find the move after which the enemy king has no escape.
Difficulty 1924 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.
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 c2, queen d1, rook a1 h1, bishop c1 f1, knight a3 d4, pawn a2 b2 g2 h2 f3 c4 d5.
Black: king f7, queen e7, rook a8 h8, bishop b4 f5, knight d3 f6, pawn a4 b7 c7 g7 h7.
15 white and 13 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 15.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 2 points of material (38 against 36; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on c2, the black king on f7.
It is Black to move on move 15, with 67 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: d, f.
The Black king has 4 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
15... Ne1#
Why it works
- Great move! knight to e1 keeps the pressure (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 1.
Move by move
- 15… Ne1# — knight to e1 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Double-check mate
Double check leaves only king moves — and there are none.
The double-check mate ends the game with check from two pieces at once, leaving the king with nothing. Neither capturing nor blocking works against a double check — only a king move, and here there is none. Look for a discovered check where the front piece checks too: it may even land on a defended square with total impunity. That is why the double check crowns so many of the most beautiful sacrificial combinations.
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.
Knight mate
The knight lands the killing blow from its unique angle.
In a knight mate the final blow comes from the knight — the only piece whose check can never be blocked. That makes it lethal against a cramped king: only a king move or capturing the knight itself can help. The sign: the squares around the king are occupied or covered, and there is a hop from which the knight checks while staying untouchable. Bring the knight over early — it is slower than the long-range pieces, but its strike cannot be parried.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 014
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