Mate in 3: bishop to c6 (f3)
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The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Chess960 twist: use the unusual starting setup of the pieces.
Difficulty 1630 ShuffleRating — for advanced tacticians.
White 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.
In Chess960 the pieces start on unfamiliar squares, so tactics appear earlier and from unusual angles. Do not trust classical patterns — read the actual lines of the bishops, the rooks and the queen from where they really stand in this position.
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 g7, rook f1 d3, bishop f3 g3, knight h1 e2, pawn a2 b2 g2 h2 e3 a6.
Black: king e8, queen c4, rook a8 d8, knight g4, pawn c5 f6 e7.
14 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 22.
The position in numbers
White are ahead by 12 points of material (37 against 25; 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 e8.
It is White to move on move 22, with 54 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle.
White keeps 6 pawns, Black 3. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): d — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for White: c, f.
White hold the bishop pair, an edge in open lines. The White king has 0 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
22. Bc6+ Rd7 23. Bxd7+ Kd8 24. Qf8#
Why it works
- Best move. bishop to c6 is exactly what the engine plays (#2).
- Spot on — bishop to d7 (#1).
- Precise: queen to f8 is the top choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Rd7, then Bxd7+ and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 22. Bc6+ — bishop to c6 with check
- Rd7 — rook to d7
- 23. Bxd7+ — bishop to d7 (capture) with check
- Kd8 — king to d8
- 24. Qf8# — queen to f8 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
Mined from the project's engine self-play games.
Verified by Stockfish at depth 20+.
Solution forcedness confirmed (verified).
Pack 013
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