Mate in 3: rook to h3 (h8)
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The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 2081 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 g3, rook a1 h1, knight c3, pawn a2 b2 h2 d3 f3 g4.
Black: king c8, rook e2 h8, knight d5, pawn g5 c6 a7 f7.
10 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 26.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 2 points of material (19 against 17; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on g3, the black king on c8.
It is Black to move on move 26, with 41 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 4. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: b, d, h.
The Black king has 5 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
26... Rh3+ 27. Kxh3 Nf4+ 28. Kg3 Rg2#
Why it works
- Great move! rook to h3 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: knight to f4 (#1).
- Strong! rook to g2 is the sharp choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Kxh3, then Nf4+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 26… Rh3+ — rook to h3 with check
- 27. Kxh3 — king to h3 (capture)
- Nf4+ — knight to f4 with check
- 28. Kg3 — king to g3
- Rg2# — rook to g2 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Hook mate
Rook, knight and pawn form a hook the king cannot escape.
The hook mate is a three-piece construction: the rook mates, the knight guards the rook, and a pawn guards the knight. The rook strikes the king at close range along a line, the knight stands diagonally nearby stealing the escape squares, and the pawn anchors the chain. The pattern usually appears near the edge after a rook invasion. Build it link by link — first plant the knight under pawn protection, then crash in with the rook.
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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