Mate in 3: bishop to h7 (d3)
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The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 2054 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 g1, queen h5, rook a1 f1, bishop d3 e3, knight b1 e5, pawn a2 b2 g2 h2 c3 d4 f4.
Black: king g8, queen d8, rook a8 e8, bishop d6 c8, knight c6 f6, pawn c5 d5 a7 b7 f7 g7 h7.
15 white and 15 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 12.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 38 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on g1, the black king on g8.
It is White to move on move 12, with 51 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 7. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e — natural highways for the rooks and queen.
The White king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
12. Bxh7+ Nxh7 13. Qxf7+ Kh8 14. Ng6#
Why it works
- Great move! bishop to h7 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: queen to f7 (#1).
- Strong! knight to g6 is the sharp choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Nxh7, then Qxf7+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 12. Bxh7+ — bishop to h7 (capture) with check
- Nxh7 — knight to h7 (capture)
- 13. Qxf7+ — queen to f7 (capture) with check
- Kh8 — king to h8
- 14. Ng6# — knight to g6 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
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.
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 014
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