Mate in 3 Chess Puzzles
Follow a forcing line across three attacking moves and two defensive replies.
Follow a forcing line across three attacking moves and two defensive replies.
A mate-in-3 puzzle guarantees checkmate on the attacker's third move against every defense. The main line contains five plies: your move, their reply, your move, their reply, and the final mate.
Longer mating sequences become manageable when you track the king's available squares after each move. Look for checks that force the king onto a narrower path while your pieces keep control of the surrounding squares.
In the interactive example, Qa5+ forces Kb7, Nd6+ forces Kb8, and Qd8 is checkmate. The queen and knight alternate checks while covering the king's exits, leaving Black no opportunity to break the sequence.
Write the line mentally as move, reply, move, reply, mate. At each turn, pause to search for a stronger defense. This branch-by-branch habit is the foundation for solving deeper tactical positions accurately.
Mated is a 21x20 Media game. The rest of our daily games are at 21x20.com.