Mate in 2: rook to c1 (d1)
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The tactical motive
Mate in 2: the first move creates an unstoppable threat, the second delivers mate.
Difficulty 1997 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 f1, rook d1 h1, bishop b3 g3, pawn a2 b2 f2 g2 h2.
Black: king c8, rook d8 e8, bishop f5, knight g6, pawn d3 f6 a7 b7 h7.
10 white and 10 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 20.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 21 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on f1, the black king on c8.
It is White to move on move 20, with 27 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): c, e — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: d.
White hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. 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
20. Rc1+ Kd7 21. Rc7#
Why it works
- Great move! rook to c1 keeps the pressure (#1).
- Well found: rook to c7 (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 2.
- If instead Kd7, then Rc7# and it is mate.
Move by move
- 20. Rc1+ — rook to c1 with check
- Kd7 — king to d7
- 21. Rc7# — rook to c7 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.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 014
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