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Openings › Mate in one › February 2026 › Exercise 4 of 4

Mate in one: Black to move (exercise m1-304789fd3e)

Black to move and mate in one. In this position Black can give checkmate with one move. The position comes from a rated Lichess game of February 2026.

Last move: 42.Rh2 (White's rook from g2 to h2); 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 e1 or g1.

Show the solution

Three moves give checkmate:

  1. Qe1# (e3 to e1). After this move, the black queen on e1 gives check to the white king on h1, and White has no legal move: checkmate. The white king on h1 has no safe square to go to (g1, g2 and h2). Its own rook on h2 stands in the way. g1 is covered by the black queen on e1 and the black rook on g7. g2 is covered by the black rook on g7. No white piece can capture the black queen on e1. No white piece can move to f1 or g1 to block the check.
  2. Qg1# (e3 to g1). After this move, the black queen on g1 gives check to the white king on h1, and White has no legal move: checkmate. The white king on h1 has no safe square to go to (g1, g2 and h2). Its own rook on h2 stands in the way. g2 is covered by the black queen on g1 and the black rook on g7. The black queen on g1 cannot be captured: the king may not take it, as the black rook on g7 guards g1. The black queen on g1 stands right next to the king, so nothing can be put in between.
  3. Rg1# (g7 to g1). After this move, the black rook on g1 gives check to the white king on h1, and White has no legal move: checkmate. The white king on h1 has no safe square to go to (g1, g2 and h2). Its own rook on h2 stands in the way. g2 is covered by the black rook on g1. The black rook on g1 cannot be captured: the king may not take it, as the black queen on e3 guards g1. The black rook on g1 stands right next to the king, so nothing can be put in between.

Our code tried every legal move of Black 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 February 2026. From a game that began with the Sicilian Defense: Old Sicilian. In that game Black 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.