These are the longest mating puzzles: forced checkmates in five moves or more. Most are mates in five, and some run longer. They are also the rarest mate puzzles, because a forced mate that long only turns up now and then in real games, and they are scarcest among easier puzzles. Every puzzle comes from a real game and is close to your puzzle rating, and solving them moves the same rating as Puzzle Training.
Nobody calculates every branch of a five move line. What strong players do is find a sequence where the opponent has almost no choice at each step, then check that the few choices left all lose. Long mates in real games are nearly always built that way: a chain of checks, captures and threats that never gives the defender a free move.
Two ideas turn up again and again. The first is the sacrifice: most long mates give up material somewhere, often to strip the king's pawn cover or remove its last defender. The second is attraction: a check or capture that drags the king onto a square where the rest of the line works. Recognising which one the position calls for narrows the search before you start.
This position is from a real game, with Black to move. Black has a king on c4, rooks on d3 and f3, and a pawn on c3. White has a king on e2, rooks on a8 and c1, and pawns on e4 and g7. The pawn on g7 would promote with check, so Black cannot afford a single quiet move. Black mates in five: 1...Rde3+ 2.Kd1 Rf1+ 3.Kc2 Re2+ 4.Kb1 Rb2+ 5.Ka1 Rxc1#.
Every white reply in that line is the only legal move. The two rooks take turns giving check, each one covering squares the other has just left, and together they walk the king along its first two ranks and into the corner. On the way, the pawn on c3 quietly does its part: it covers b2 and d2, which is why a rook can land on b2 and stay there.
In the final position the rook on c1 checks along the first rank, the rook on b2 covers a2 and b1, and the pawn on c3 defends that rook, so the king cannot take it. The whole line had to be seen at the start, because any pause would have let the new queen appear with check.
Begin with the picture. Where on the board could this king be mated, and by which pieces? Then look for the forcing route there. Checks come first, because they cut down the replies; captures and threats that must be answered come next.
At every move of the line, stop and ask what the defender would most like to do: give a check of their own, capture your most active piece, or block with tempo. If any of those breaks the line, the line is wrong. If each reply still loses, you have it.
Keep counting the whole way. After four or five moves it is easy to lose track of which squares a piece still covers. If the picture blurs, go back to the start and walk it again instead of guessing.
Starting before the line is complete is the big one. A wrong first move counts the puzzle as a miss, even if you find the mate later. The second is calculating only the moves you expect. In a five move line the defender has four chances to surprise you. The third is letting a winning line turn into a merely good one: a big material gain is not a mate, and the puzzle will not accept it.
There is no clock on rated puzzles, so take all the time you need. Say the whole line to yourself before your first move. After each move the opponent's reply is played on the board, so you can check your calculation against it; once solved, the full line appears beside the board. If you are stuck, the hint shows the piece first, then the move.
If these feel out of reach, step down to mate in 4 or mate in 3, where the same method applies over fewer moves. Long mates end in the same patterns as short ones, so the checkmate patterns page is worth knowing well.
For mixed tactics at your level, use Puzzle Training. For the opposite skill, fast recognition under time pressure, use Puzzle Storm. To make a fixed set of ideas instant, try 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 turning missed tactics into lessons, read how to learn from your chess mistakes.
Most puzzles here are mates in five, and some are longer. It collects the forced mates of five moves or more.
Forced mates this long are rare in real games, and rarer still in easier positions. The puzzles are close to your rating, but there are far fewer of them than short mates.
Choose forcing moves, above all checks, so the defender has few replies at each step, and aim for a mating picture you can see before you start.
Yes. After each of your moves, the opponent's reply from the puzzle is played on the board and you continue from there.