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

Mate in one: Black to move (exercise m1-795ebe1abf)

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 May 2026.

Last move: 39.Kd1 (White's king from d2 to d1); 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.

Hint 2: which square?

The mating move goes to e1.

Show the solution

One move gives checkmate:

  1. Qe1# (e3 to e1). After this move, the black queen on e1 gives check to the white king on d1, and White has no legal move: checkmate. The white king on d1 has no safe square to go to (c1, c2, d2, e1 and e2). Its own pawn on c2 stands in the way. c1 is covered by the black queen on e1. d2 is covered by the black queen on e1. e2 is covered by the black queen on e1. The black queen on e1 cannot be captured: the king may not take it, as the black knight on g2 guards e1. The black queen on e1 stands right next to the king, so nothing can be put in between.

Our code tried every legal move of Black 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 May 2026. From a game that began with the London System. 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.