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Openings › Mate in one › February 2026 › Exercise 2 of 4

Mate in one: White to move (exercise m1-578242fd50)

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 February 2026.

Last move: 35…Kg5 (Black's king from h4 to g5); 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 pawn move.

Hint 2: which square?

The mating move goes to h4.

Show the solution

One move gives checkmate:

  1. h4# (h3 to h4). After this move, the white pawn on h4 gives check to the black king on g5, and Black has no legal move: checkmate. The black king on g5 has no safe square to go to (f4, f5, f6, g4, g6, h4, h5 and h6). Its own pawn on h5 stands in the way. f5 is covered by the white pawn on e4, the white rook on f4 and the white rook on f6. g4 is covered by the white rook on f4. g6 is covered by the white rook on f6. h6 is covered by the white rook on f6. The king may not take the white rook on f4: the white rook on f6 guards f4. The king may not take the white rook on f6: the white rook on f4 guards f6. The white pawn on h4 cannot be captured: the king may not take it, as the white rook on f4 guards h4. The white pawn on h4 stands right next to the king, so nothing can be put in between.

Our code tried every legal move of White in this position: this is the only move that gives 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: Bowdler Attack. 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.