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Openings › Mate in one › June 2026 › Exercise 1 of 4

Mate in one: Black to move (exercise m1-930ab8e517)

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 June 2026.

Last move: 26.g3 (White's pawn from g2 to g3); 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 knight move.

Hint 2: which square?

A mating move goes to e2 or h3.

Show the solution

Two moves give checkmate:

  1. Nxe2# (f4 to e2). After this move, the black knight on e2 gives check to the white king on g1, and White has no legal move: checkmate. The white king on g1 has no safe square to go to (f1, f2, g2, h1 and h2). Its own rook on f1, pawn on f2 and pawn on h2 stand in the way. g2 is covered by the black bishop on e4. h1 is covered by the black bishop on e4. No white piece can capture the black knight on e2. A knight's check cannot be blocked.
  2. Nh3# (f4 to h3). After this move, the black knight on h3 gives check to the white king on g1, and White has no legal move: checkmate. The white king on g1 has no safe square to go to (f1, f2, g2, h1 and h2). Its own rook on f1, pawn on f2 and pawn on h2 stand in the way. g2 is covered by the black bishop on e4. h1 is covered by the black bishop on e4. No white piece can capture the black knight on h3. A knight's check cannot be blocked.

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 June 2026. From a game that began with the Englund Gambit. 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.