Mating patterns
Mate in 2 puzzles
By Antoine TamanoUpdated
A mate in 2 is a position where you can force checkmate on your second move, whatever your opponent replies in between. The first move does the work. Usually it is a check or a capture that leaves the king a single answer; sometimes it is a quiet move that threatens two mates at once. To find it, go through checks, captures and threats, and keep the move after which every reply allows mate.
Play it
Real puzzles from real games, rated 905 to 1623. No account needed.
Forced means every reply
A mate in 2 is judged by your opponent's reply, not by your first move. A line in which the opponent has to cooperate is a hope. So for each candidate, list the replies: every legal move, the king moves, the captures, the pieces that can step in between. If one of them escapes, the candidate is wrong, however good it looks.
That is also why checks come first. A check leaves a handful of replies, often one, and one reply is easy to answer. In the first diagram Qxf7+ takes a pawn with check. The bishop on c4 protects the queen, so the king cannot take it, f8 is covered, and the only legal move is Kh8. Now the queen goes to f8 and mates on the back rank, with the bishop covering g8.
Captures that pull a defender away
When the mating square is defended, the first move often removes the defender. In the second diagram the black rook on e8 holds the back rank, and the queen protects the rook. Rxe8+ forces Qxe8, Black's only legal move: the king is walled in by its pawns and the rook covers f8. The queen has been pulled onto e8, and the second white rook takes it there with mate.
That is the back rank mate again, one move deeper. The same idea on other squares is the deflection and removing the defender: before you give up on a mate because a square is covered, ask what the covering piece can be forced to do instead.
The quiet move
The hardest mates in 2 begin with a move that gives no check and takes nothing. It threatens mate, often two mates at once, and the opponent has no move that stops both. They are missed because the scan stops too early: after checks and captures, look at threats too, including the threat made by a move that only seems to save a piece. That is the quiet move.
The third diagram comes from a Lichess puzzle. Black's bishop has just attacked the rook on g3. Rh3 moves it out of the way and puts it behind the queen on the h-file, so the queen is now protected on h7 and on h8. Black can push a pawn, bring a piece back or free a square for the king. Whatever Black plays, the queen mates on h7 or h8.
How the puzzles here were chosen
Every puzzle on this page comes from a real game on Lichess, with Lichess's rating, easiest first. Each one was checked move by move: no mate in one is hiding in it, the first move forces mate against every reply, and it is the only first move that does. On the second move any checkmate counts, even one the game did not play.
If the final move still takes you a while, start with the mate in 1 puzzles. The second moves keep taking the same few shapes, and each has a page of its own: the smothered mate, the Arabian mate, Anastasia's mate.
Questions
What does mate in 2 mean in chess?
That the side to move can force checkmate on its second move, whatever the opponent plays in between: your move, any reply, then your mating move.
How do you solve a mate in 2?
Go through your checks, then your captures, then your threats. For each candidate, list every reply your opponent has and make sure each one allows a mate. Start with the moves that leave the fewest replies, which is why checks come first.
Is the first move of a mate in 2 always a check?
No. It often is, because a check limits the replies, but many mates in 2 start with a quiet move that threatens mate on two squares at once. If no check works, look for a move that adds an attacker or protects the square your queen or rook needs.
Why was my first move marked wrong?
Every puzzle on this page was checked to have exactly one first move that forces mate in two. Any other first move either lets the king escape or needs more moves. On the second move, any checkmate is accepted.
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