Mate in 3: double attack on g7 (g3)
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The tactical motive
Double attack: one move creates two threats at once.
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 1978 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
White to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A double attack threatens two things at once so the opponent cannot parry both. Look for a single move — often a queen or knight — that creates two separate threats, such as a check plus an attack on a loose piece.
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 d2, queen d4, rook g3 f5, pawn a2 b2 c2 f2 h2.
Black: king g8, queen f1, rook d8 f8, pawn a6 b7 f7 g7 h7.
9 white and 9 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 24.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 24 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on d2, the black king on g8.
It is White to move on move 24, with 41 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): d, e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: 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
24. Rxg7+ Kh8 25. Rg8+ Kxg8 26. Rg5#
Why it works
- Great move! rook to g7 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: rook to g8 (#1).
- Strong! rook to g5 is the sharp choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Kh8, then Rg8+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 24. Rxg7+ — rook to g7 (capture) with check
- Kh8 — king to h8
- 25. Rg8+ — rook to g8 with check
- Kxg8 — king to g8 (capture)
- 26. Rg5# — rook to g5 and it is checkmate
Types in this puzzle
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.
Royal fork
A fork with check: the king must move, and the second piece is lost.
A royal fork is a fork with check — one of the two targets is the king itself. The check must be answered first, so nobody is left to rescue the second piece. Look for squares where your piece gives check and simultaneously attacks an undefended queen or rook. It is the most reliable fork of all, because your opponent literally has no choice.
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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