Mate in two: checks, captures, then threats
In a mate in two, your first move leaves your opponent no defence, and your second move mates. You find it with a method, not a flash of inspiration: the most forcing moves first, and every reply checked.
What a mate in two is
A mate in two takes three moves: yours, your opponent’s reply, and your mate. The difficulty is the reply. Your first move must lead to mate against every defence, not only the one you expect: if a single defence escapes, it is not a mate in two.
It is one of the most common kinds of puzzle. In the Lichess puzzle database (6.2 million puzzles), 13.2% of the puzzles are tagged mate in two: a little less than mate in one (14.8%), and more than the fork (12.8%), the most frequent of the motifs. It is also one of the ten themes of 300 Chess Puzzles, with thirty mates in two from about 600 to 1800 Elo.
The method: checks, captures, threats
Start with the most forcing moves, because they leave your opponent the fewest replies. A check has only three answers: move the king, take the checking piece, or put something in between. That list is short enough to calculate to the end.
- Checks. List every check, including those that give up material. For each one, list every reply and look for a mate after each.
- Captures. Then the captures, especially those that remove a defender of the squares around the king.
- Threats. Then the quiet moves that threaten mate. Your opponent now has a free move, so look at every defence.
If one first move leads to mate after every reply, you have found it. Do not rule out a move because it gives up material: a mate in two often starts with a sacrifice. Here is the method at work on three puzzles from real games.
First puzzle: a capture with check
White has a queen and Black has none, so a slow move will not do. Checks first: there are two, 1…Bxf2+ and 1…Rxd1+. After the bishop check, the king simply takes it, 2.Kxf2, and it has left the back rank: no mate.
1…Rxd1+ is the one. The king cannot move: its own pawns stand on f2, g2 and h2, and the rook covers the first rank. The queen cannot take the rook, because the knight on f3 blocks its diagonal, and the bishop on h3 cannot come back to f1, because the g2 pawn is in the way. Only 2.Ne1 blocks the check, and 2…Rxe1# mates.
The tempting move is 1…Bxf3?, which wins a knight. But it gives White a move, and 2.Rxd8+ takes Black’s rook with check: the mate is gone, and White is winning.
Second puzzle: one check out of three
1…Qxf2+ wins a rook, which is why it tempts, but the queen is not protected: White recaptures, for example with 2.Nxf2. 1…Qxg2+ runs into 2.Rxg2. Neither check leads to mate, and both leave White winning.
1…Qh2+ is the move. The bishop on d6 protects the queen, so the king cannot take it, and h1 is covered: only 2.Kf1 is left. Then 2…Qh1#. The queen holds the whole first rank, the bishop on f3 covers e2, and White’s own rook and knight block f2 and g2.
The first two puzzles end the same way: a king shut in by its own pieces, mated on the back rank. That pattern has its own signals, which our article on the back-rank mate explains. Our article on checkmate patterns covers the other classic mates.
Third puzzle: a rook sacrifice
Black has a single check, and it costs a rook: 1…Rxh2+. It is tempting to dismiss it because of the material, and that would be a mistake. The king has to take, 2.Kxh2, because the bishop on e3 covers g1. Then 2…Qh4#: the rook was given up to pull the king onto the h-file, and the queen mates it there.
A sacrifice is free when mate follows: material only counts if the game goes on. That is the second signal of the mate-in-two lesson of 300 Chess Puzzles: sacrifices that drag the king out or take away its last free square. This position is one of the two worked examples of that lesson.
When checks and captures fail: the quiet move
Sometimes no check and no capture leads to mate. Then comes the third step: a quiet first move, one that neither checks nor captures but leaves your opponent no way to stop the mate. It often takes away the king’s last free square, or brings one more piece within reach.
A quiet move gives your opponent a free move, so look at their options with the same care: their checks first, then their captures, then the moves that cover the mating square or give the king air. The rule from the lesson: a quiet first move is fine if nothing can stop the mate that follows.
Common mistakes
- Playing the first check you see. In the second puzzle, 1…Qxf2+ wins a rook with check and lets the mate slip. Look at every check before you choose.
- Taking material instead of mating. In the first, 1…Bxf3? wins a knight and gives White time to take the rook on d8.
- Forgetting a reply. A piece put in between, a capture of the checking piece, a step of the king: miss one, and your mate in two is not one.
- Refusing to sacrifice. A rook given up costs nothing when mate follows.
- Stopping after the first move. Until you have written your opponent’s reply and your mate, the puzzle is not solved.
How to practise
Solve mates in two on paper, and repeat the method to yourself: checks, captures, threats. Write the whole line, with your opponent’s reply, before you turn to the solution. When you are wrong, look for the reply you missed: that is what the puzzle had to teach you. Our article on how to calculate in chess takes the same method beyond mates.
Start with easy ones until the method becomes automatic, then raise the difficulty. The first two puzzles above are in our free Lichess study, and 300 Chess Puzzles has thirty mates in two, easiest first, after a short lesson on the signals. For a daily rhythm, read how many puzzles to solve a day; each Knight’s Notebook brings sixty puzzles at your level every month.