A mate in 2 gives you a forced checkmate in two moves: your move, any reply your opponent chooses, then mate. The second move is usually easy once you see it. The first one is the puzzle, because it is often not a check at all. The positions here come from real games and are matched to your puzzle rating.
The first move of a mate in 2 is almost always one of three things. It can be a check that drives the king onto a square where the second move mates it. It can be a sacrifice that removes a defender, pulls the king forward, or drags a piece away from the square it was guarding. Or it can be a quiet move that takes away the king's last free square, or sets up a mate that your opponent has no way to stop.
Knowing these three types turns a blank board into a short checklist. Look for the forcing checks first, then the sacrifices, and only then the quiet moves.
Start with the mates that almost work. Look for a check that would be mate if one enemy piece were not in the way, or if the king had one square fewer. That piece or square is your target. The first move exists to deal with it: capture or deflect the defender, block the escape, or force the king somewhere worse.
Then check every reply. A mate in 2 is only solved if mate follows after your opponent's best defence, not after the reply you hope for. Go through their checks, their captures and every way the king can run. If one reply escapes, the first move is wrong, however good it looked.
A typical shape: your queen and rook both aim at the back rank, and a single enemy rook is all that holds it. A check or capture that forces that rook to leave the rank opens it, and the second move mates. In words the idea is simple. At the board it is hard to see, because the first move usually gives up material.
The first is stopping after your own move. Players find a strong first move, feel the mate coming, and play it without checking whether the opponent has a check of their own in reply. The second is choosing a first move that threatens mate but gives the opponent time to defend by bringing another piece over. The third is taking material with the first move when the position calls for a quiet one.
In the trainer your opponent's reply is played for you after your first move, and you continue from there. If the reply is not the one you expected, stop and look again before moving.
Before touching a piece, say the whole line to yourself: my move, their best reply, my mate. If you cannot finish the sentence, you have not solved it yet. After you solve a puzzle, the full line appears in the panel beside the board, so read it through and check that it matches what you saw.
If mate in 2 feels like guesswork, go back to mate in 1 puzzles for a while: every mate in 2 ends in a mate in one, and spotting those quickly frees your attention for the first move. When mate in 2 feels comfortable, move on to mate in 3 puzzles.
Mate in 2 sits between pattern recognition and calculation. For pure recognition, use Puzzle Storm against the clock. For mixed tactics at your rating, use Puzzle Training, and to drill one fixed set until the mates are instant, try the Woodpecker Method. Elo Maxing tracks how you do on each motif and serves the weakest next. For a method that works on any tactic, read how to find the best move in chess.
A position where you can force checkmate in two moves, whatever your opponent plays in between.
No. It is often a quiet move or a sacrifice that sets up a mate your opponent cannot stop.
Yes. After you solve a puzzle, the whole line appears in the panel beside the board.
Mate in 3 puzzles, which need the same method over one more move, and mixed puzzles in Puzzle Training.