Mate in 2: rook to f3 (f1·2)
li-0Jb6snaming tag (square·N)Opens in the app if installed, otherwise downloads the APK.
The tactical motive
Mate in 2: the first move creates an unstoppable threat, the second delivers mate.
Difficulty 1945 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
White 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 g1, rook f1 d6, pawn b2 g2 h3 c5 e5.
Black: king g3, queen a2, rook c8, bishop a6, pawn b4 g5 h6 d7 f7.
8 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 31.
The position in numbers
Black are ahead by 7 points of material (15 against 22; 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 g3.
It is White to move on move 31, with 29 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 5 pawns, Black 5. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): a — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: d, f.
The White king has 1 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
31. Rf3+ Kh4 32. Rxh6#
Why it works
- Great move! rook to f3 keeps the pressure (#1).
- Well found: rook to h6 (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 2.
- If instead Kh4, then Rxh6# and it is mate.
Move by move
- 31. Rf3+ — rook to f3 with check
- Kh4 — king to h4
- 32. Rxh6# — rook to h6 (capture) and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
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.
Only move
Everything else loses — find the only move that holds.
An only move is a position where everything loses except one single continuation. You cannot play "by hand" here: run through fundamentally different defenses — run away, block, trade, counterattack — and discard the ones that fail. The hallmark of these puzzles is that the obvious moves lose quickly while the solution often looks strange. First understand exactly what the threat is — then the one saving move reveals itself.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 014
Similar puzzles
In your browser or in the Android app. Nothing to install · Free, no ads