Mate in 2: queen to f4 (c7)
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The tactical motive
Mate in 2: the first move creates an unstoppable threat, the second delivers mate.
Difficulty 1860 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
Black to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
Mate in two usually opens with a forcing move — a check, a capture or an unstoppable threat — that strips the king of squares or defenders, so the follow-up mate becomes unavoidable. Look for the first move that leaves the opponent only losing replies.
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 e3, queen d2, rook b1 e1, bishop d3, pawn h2 a3 f3 b4 d4 c5.
Black: king g8, queen c7, rook f8, knight d7, pawn g3 d5 c6 a7 b7 g7 h7.
11 white and 11 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 22.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 4 points of material (28 against 24; pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9) — the tactic has to convert or outweigh that.
The white king stands on e3, the black king on g8.
It is Black to move on move 22, with 35 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 7. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: f.
The Black king has 2 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
22... Qf4+ 23. Ke2 Qxf3#
Why it works
- Great move! queen to f4 keeps the pressure (#1).
- Well found: queen to f3 (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 2.
- If instead Ke2, then Qxf3# and it is mate.
Move by move
- 22… Qf4+ — queen to f4 with check
- 23. Ke2 — king to e2
- Qxf3# — queen to f3 (capture) and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Supported queen mate
The queen delivers mate face to face, protected by a friend.
The supported queen mate is the most common pattern of all: the queen lands next to the king and mates because a friendly piece or pawn protects her. The king is helpless — capturing is impossible, and the queen covers every neighboring square herself. Hunt for a protected square beside the enemy king: a knight, bishop or pawn eyeing it turns her invasion into mate. Verify one thing — that the square really is defended, or the king eats her.
Mate in 2
A forced checkmate in two moves.
Mate in two: your move, any reply, then the mating blow. Start with the most forcing first moves — checks and sacrifices that shrink the opponent's options to almost nothing. Against every single reply you must have a mate ready, so check them all without exception. The common failure is analyzing the pretty defense and forgetting the boring one.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 014
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