Mate in 3: queen to b2 (b6)
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The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 2126 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 b1, queen e4, rook c1 h1, knight g5, pawn a2 b2 f2 g2 h4 e5.
Black: king g8, queen b6, rook a8 c8, knight c2, pawn a6 e6 g6 d7 f7 h7.
11 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 21.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 28 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on b1, the black king on g8.
It is Black to move on move 21, with 43 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): c — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: b.
The Black king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
21... Qxb2+ 22. Kxb2 Rab8+ 23. Qb4 Rxb4#
Why it works
- Great move! queen to b2 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: rook to b8 (#1).
- Strong! rook to b4 is the sharp choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Kxb2, then Rab8+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 21… Qxb2+ — queen to b2 (capture) with check
- 22. Kxb2 — king to b2 (capture)
- Rab8+ — rook to b8 with check
- 23. Qb4 — queen to b4
- Rxb4# — rook to b4 (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.
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).
Pack 015
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