Mate in One
Puzzle: 1 / 7
- Category
- Board
- Players
- 1
- Controls
- Tap
- Puzzles
- Seven
- Loads
- Plays instantly
Controls
| Tap a white piece | Select it. |
| Tap a square | Move there. |
| Hint | A nudge toward the idea. |
Next up
| Tap a white piece | Select it. |
| Tap a square | Move there. |
| Hint | A nudge toward the idea. |
Mate in One gives you a position with White to play and exactly one move that ends the game. No captures to calculate ten moves deep, no long variations — just the discipline of looking at every check and asking whether the king has anywhere to go.
It is the foundation of all chess tactics. Strong players spot mating patterns instantly because they have seen them thousands of times, and the back rank, the supported queen and the rook on an open file are the first three anyone learns.
Look at every check first. Mate is a check the king cannot answer, so the candidate moves are always checks and there are rarely more than three or four.
Count the king's escape squares. A king with three flight squares needs all three covered, which usually means the mating piece has to be supported by another.
Watch the back rank. A king boxed in by its own pawns is the most common mating pattern in real games, and a rook or queen arriving on that rank ends it immediately.
Do not take material. Capturing something looks productive and almost never mates. If a move does not give check, it is not the answer here.
Seven, each with exactly one mating move.
No. Each position was checked with a move generator to confirm exactly one move delivers mate.
White, in every puzzle.
Very. Recognising mate in one is the first tactical skill in chess and it transfers directly to real games.
No sign-up, no email, no account. Open the page and Mate in One is ready to play straight away, on a phone or a desktop.