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Openings › Mate in one › October 2025 › Exercise 2 of 4

Mate in one: White to move (exercise m1-050300b669)

White to move and mate in one. In this position White can give checkmate with one move. The position comes from a rated Lichess game of October 2025.

Last move: 21…Kg7 (Black's king from h8 to g7); its two squares are marked on the board.

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Pick a piece, then its square. Keyboard: Tab to the board, arrow keys to move, Enter or Space to pick.

Hint 1: which piece?

Look for a queen move or a rook move.

Hint 2: which square?

A mating move goes to f7 or g8.

Show the solution

Three moves give checkmate:

  1. Qf7# (c4 to f7). After this move, the white queen on f7 gives check to the black king on g7, and Black has no legal move: checkmate. The black king on g7 has no safe square to go to (f6, f7, f8, g6, g8, h6, h7 and h8). Its own pawn on f6, pawn on g6 and pawn on h7 stand in the way. g8 is covered by the white queen on f7 and the white rook on f8. h6 is covered by the white bishop on e3. h8 is covered by the white rook on f8. The king may not take the white rook on f8: the white queen on f7 guards f8. The white queen on f7 cannot be captured: the king may not take it, as the white rook on f8 guards f7. The white queen on f7 stands right next to the king, so nothing can be put in between.
  2. Qg8# (c4 to g8). After this move, the white queen on g8 gives check to the black king on g7, and Black has no legal move: checkmate. The black king on g7 has no safe square to go to (f6, f7, f8, g6, g8, h6, h7 and h8). Its own pawn on f6, pawn on g6 and pawn on h7 stand in the way. f7 is covered by the white rook on f8 and the white queen on g8. h6 is covered by the white bishop on e3. h8 is covered by the white queen on g8. The king may not take the white rook on f8: the white queen on g8 guards f8. The white queen on g8 cannot be captured: the king may not take it, as the white rook on f8 guards g8. The white queen on g8 stands right next to the king, so nothing can be put in between.
  3. Rg8# (f8 to g8). After this move, the white rook on g8 gives check to the black king on g7, and Black has no legal move: checkmate. The black king on g7 has no safe square to go to (f6, f7, f8, g6, g8, h6, h7 and h8). Its own pawn on f6, pawn on g6 and pawn on h7 stand in the way. f7 is covered by the white queen on c4. f8 is covered by the white rook on g8. h6 is covered by the white bishop on e3. h8 is covered by the white rook on g8. The white rook on g8 cannot be captured: the king may not take it, as the white queen on c4 guards g8. The white rook on g8 stands right next to the king, so nothing can be put in between.

Our code tried every legal move of White in this position: these are the only moves that give checkmate.

The position as text

Where this exercise comes from

The position comes from a rated game in our sample of the Lichess open database (CC0 1.0), from the monthly file of October 2025. From a game that began with the Queen's Pawn Game: Modern Defense. In that game White gave checkmate with the next move. We show no player names and no link to the game. Our code tried every legal move of the position and lists every move that gives checkmate; the list, the hints and the explanations are checked again each time the site is built. How the exercises are chosen: Mate in one and How it works.