Every puzzle on this page ends in checkmate. Some are a single move, others a longer forcing line, and all of them come from real games and sit close to your puzzle rating. Solving them moves the same rating as Puzzle Training. Below is what every mate has in common, a short guide to the common checkmate patterns, and a page for each one if you want to train a single pattern.
A king in check has three ways out: move to a safe square, block the check, or capture the checking piece. Checkmate is simply a check where all three fail. That is why looking for mate starts with the king rather than with your own pieces. Which squares around it are free, which are taken by its own pieces, and which do you already control?
The difference between mate and stalemate is one square. Put a white king on g6, a white queen on f1 and a black king alone on h8, with White to move. Qf8 is checkmate: the queen checks along the back rank and covers g8, the white king covers g7 and h7, and the queen is too far away to be captured. It is the only mate in the position. Qf7 and Qc4 look just as strong, since they also take every square from the king, but neither gives check, so Black has no legal move and the game is drawn.
Most mates in real games are one of a small set of shapes, and each has a name. Learning the names is not the point; recognising the shape is, because a familiar picture tells you where the king will be mated before you calculate anything.
The back rank family is the one you will meet most. A back rank mate is a rook or queen mating along the king's first rank while its own pawns stop it moving up. An epaulette mate is a king flanked on both sides by its own pieces and checked head on.
Some mates are the queen alone, right next to the king. In a dovetail mate a protected queen checks from a diagonal square and the two squares it cannot reach are blocked by the king's own pieces. In a swallow's tail mate the queen checks from directly in front, and the king's own pieces fill the two squares diagonally behind it.
Rook and bishop make several patterns. In an opera mate a rook checks on the back rank and a bishop defends it. In Pillsbury's mate the rook mates while a bishop helps confine the king, and in Morphy's mate the roles are reversed: the bishop mates and the rook confines. Two bishops on criss-crossing diagonals give Boden's mate.
The knight has the most distinctive mates. A smothered mate is a knight mating a king surrounded by its own pieces. In a corner mate a rook or queen fences the king into the corner and the knight delivers mate. In an Arabian mate a knight and rook trap the king in the corner, and in Anastasia's mate a knight and a rook or queen pin the king against the side of the board and one of its own pieces. A hook mate uses a rook, a knight and a pawn, with the king's own pawn blocking its escape. Finally, two rooks working together give the blind swine mate, catching the king in a box of two by two squares.
The puzzles here are a mix of lengths. Among easier puzzles, most mates are one or two moves; as your rating rises, longer forced mates make up more of what you see. If you want to work on one length at a time, there is a page for each: mate in 1, mate in 2, mate in 3, mate in 4 and mate in 5 or more.
Whatever the length, the last move is a mate in one, and it is very often one of the patterns above. That is why pattern knowledge pays off in longer puzzles: once you see which picture the position is heading for, you know what the forcing moves before it have to achieve.
Start with the enemy king and count its free squares. Then list every check you have, including captures with check, discovered checks and promotions. For each check, ask the three questions: can the king move, can the check be blocked, can the checker be taken? If one check nearly works, look at what spoils it. It is usually a single defender or a single escape square, and the winning move is often the one that removes it, even at the cost of material.
The first is playing the first check you see and driving the king to a safer square. The second is forgetting a defender that reaches from a distance, such as a bishop on a long diagonal or a rook on the far side of the board. The third is stalemate: a move that takes the last square without giving check. In a mate puzzle the final move always gives check.
Treat every puzzle as a real game and move only when you are sure. If you are stuck, the hint first shows which piece to move and only then the move itself. In positions where the mate is a single move, any move that checkmates is accepted. In longer puzzles, your opponent's reply is played for you after each of your moves, and the full line appears beside the board once you solve it.
For mixed tactics at your level, use Puzzle Training. For speed, try Puzzle Storm, and to repeat a fixed set until the mates are automatic, the Woodpecker Method. Elo Maxing rates you on every tactical motif and serves the weakest next, and Pattern Drill builds practice from the patterns your own games show you miss. For a method that works on any tactic, read how to find the best move in chess.
Positions from real games where you can force checkmate, either in one move or with a forcing sequence. Every puzzle on this page ends in mate.
The back rank mate is the one you will meet most. Others worth knowing include the smothered mate, opera mate, Pillsbury's mate, Anastasia's mate, the Arabian mate and the epaulette mate.
Checkmate is a check the king cannot escape. Stalemate is a position where the side to move is not in check but has no legal move, and it is a draw.
Yes. Each puzzle comes from a real game and is close to your puzzle rating, which moves after every attempt.
Yes. Each pattern and each mate length has its own page, linked above, with puzzles of that type only.