Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles
Calculate your first move, the best defense, and the checkmating finish.
Calculate your first move, the best defense, and the checkmating finish.
A mate-in-2 puzzle ends on the attacker's second move. Your first move must preserve a checkmate against every legal reply, not merely against the most obvious response.
After choosing a candidate, do not jump straight to the finish. List every capture, block, king move, and countercheck available to the defender. Your combination succeeds only if each branch still leads to mate on move two.
In the interactive example, Bf2+ drives the king to g3. The bishop then captures on g3 with checkmate. The first move works because it restricts the king and preserves the coordinated attack for the final move.
Mate-in-2 practice teaches a compact calculation loop: candidate, best defense, finish. That discipline is useful far beyond composed puzzles because it prevents you from stopping after a move merely looks strong.
Mated is a 21x20 Media game. The rest of our daily games are at 21x20.com.