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

Mate in one: White to move (exercise m1-d8df373105)

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: 34…Qg8 (Black's queen from e6 to g8); 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 knight move.

Hint 2: which square?

A mating move goes to g8 or f7.

Show the solution

Two moves give checkmate:

  1. Qxg8# (f8 to g8). After this move, the white queen on g8 gives check to the black king on h8, and Black has no legal move: checkmate. The black king on h8 has no safe square to go to (g7, g8 and h7). Its own pawn on h7 stands in the way. g7 is covered by the white rook on a7 and the white queen on g8. The white queen on g8 cannot be captured: the king may not take it, as the white knight on h6 guards g8. The white queen on g8 stands right next to the king, so nothing can be put in between.
  2. Nf7# (h6 to f7). After this move, the white knight on f7 gives check to the black king on h8, and Black has no legal move: checkmate. The black king on h8 has no safe square to go to (g7, g8 and h7). Its own queen on g8 and pawn on h7 stand in the way. g7 is covered by the white queen on f8. The white knight on f7 cannot be captured: the black queen on g8 is pinned to its king by the white queen on f8. A knight's check cannot be blocked.

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 Bishop's Opening. 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.