Mate in 3: pin on h2
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The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Pin: a piece can't move without exposing something more valuable behind it.
Difficulty 2313 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
Black 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.
A pin freezes a piece in front of a more valuable one behind it. Scan the ranks, files and diagonals your bishop, rook or queen controls: if an enemy piece cannot move without exposing its king or queen, it is pinned and can be piled on or bypassed.
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 d2, rook a1 e1, bishop d1, knight e3, pawn a2 b2 f2 h2 c3 g3 d4.
Black: king g8, queen h3, rook e4 f8, bishop f3 d6, pawn b5 a6 c6 f7 g7 h7.
13 white and 12 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 22.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 1 points of material (32 against 31; 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 g8.
It is Black to move on move 22, with 51 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 7 pawns, Black 6. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: d.
Black hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The Black king has 1 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
22... Qxh2+ 23. Kxh2 Rh4+ 24. Kg1 Rh1#
Why it works
- Great move! queen to h2 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: rook to h4 (#1).
- Strong! rook to h1 is the sharp choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Kxh2, then Rh4+ and you stay on top.
Move by move
- 22… Qxh2+ — queen to h2 (capture) with check
- 23. Kxh2 — king to h2 (capture)
- Rh4+ — rook to h4 with check
- 24. Kg1 — king to g1
- Rh1# — rook to h1 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.
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.
Sacrifice attack
Give up material to unleash a decisive attack.
A sacrificial attack gives up material on purpose to rip the king's shelter open and launch a decisive assault. The sac is sound when you get concrete assets in return: open lines to the king, tempi, pieces ready to pour in. The signs: a poorly sheltered king, your forces aimed at its home, defenders stranded far away. The iron rule is to calculate, not hope — once the material is gone, there is no way back.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 015
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