Mate in 3: queen to h2 (h5·2)
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The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 1872 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
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 e6, rook a1 d2, pawn f2 g2 c3 d3 e4 a5.
Black: king g7, queen h5, rook f7, knight g4, pawn e5 h6.
10 white and 6 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 31.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 6 points of material (25 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 g1, the black king on g7.
It is Black to move on move 31, with 26 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 2. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: a, c, d, f, g.
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
31... Qh2+ 32. Kf1 Qh1+ 33. Ke2 Rxf2#
Why it works
- Great move! queen to h2 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: queen to h1 (#1).
- Strong! rook to f2 is the sharp choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Kf1, then Qh1+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 31… Qh2+ — queen to h2 with check
- 32. Kf1 — king to f1
- Qh1+ — queen to h1 with check
- 33. Ke2 — king to e2
- Rxf2# — rook to f2 (capture) and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Ladder mate
Two heavy pieces climb line by line, cutting off every retreat.
The ladder mate uses two heavy pieces climbing rung by rung: one cuts the king off along a line, the other checks on the next line, driving him toward the edge. It is the classic two-rook technique — check, the king retreats one rank, the other rook checks, until mate on the last rank. The only danger is the king creeping close enough to attack one of your rooks. If it does, simply slide that rook to the far side of the same line.
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.
Absolute pin
A piece is pinned against its king — it cannot legally move.
An absolute pin freezes a piece on the line between its own king and your long-range attacker: moving it is simply illegal. The pattern is three units on one straight line — your bishop, rook or queen, an enemy piece, and the enemy king behind it. A pinned piece neither attacks nor defends anything: treat it as if it were off the board. Pile up on it, ideally with a pawn, because running away is against the rules.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 014
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