Mate in 1: queen to d8 (c7)
li-0JK5unaming tag (square·N)Opens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Mate in 1: find the move after which the enemy king has no escape.
Difficulty 1904 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
White to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A mate in one hides among forcing checks. Run through every check you can give: does it cover all the king's escape squares, is the checking piece safe or supported, and can nothing block or capture it? If yes, that is the mate.
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, queen c7, rook h1, bishop g4, pawn f2 a3 d3 f5.
Black: king f6, queen g5, rook b3, knight f4, pawn c4 d4 a5 e5 f7 g7.
8 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 41.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 2 points of material (21 against 23; 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 f6.
It is White to move on move 41, with 33 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 4 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, h — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: c, e, g.
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
41. Qd8#
Why it works
- Great move! queen to d8 keeps the pressure (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 1.
Move by move
- 41. Qd8# — queen to d8 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
Mate in 1
Checkmate in a single move — find it.
Mate in one: the combination is over, only the final precise shot remains. The method is simple — list every check you have and test the three escapes against each: king moves, blocks, and capturing the checker. If none of them works, it is mate. The classic blunder is falling in love with the first check you see and missing the one escape hatch.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 014
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