Checkmate puzzles
Every one of these ten Lichess positions ends in forced mate. Find the checks, trace the king’s flight squares, and see the pattern before you open the answer.
Mating patterns are the highest-stakes tactic to drill: a missed mate can turn a win into a loss in one move. The good news is that most mates in real games come from a small family of patterns, such as back-rank mates, queen-and-bishop batteries, smothered mates and king hunts along an open file.
Repetition turns those patterns into shapes you recognise before you calculate. In later cycles you should see the king’s missing flight squares first and the mating move second.
What to look for
- The king’s flight squares: which are covered, and by what?
- Every check, even ones that give up material; mates often start with a sacrifice.
- Batteries of queen and bishop or queen and rook aimed at the king.
- Defenders that can be deflected, blocked or exchanged off.
10 puzzles
Solve these checkmate puzzles
Real positions from the Lichess puzzle database, rated 959 to 1619, easiest first. The board faces the side to move.
Puzzle 1 · rated 959
White to move. Puzzle 2 · rated 992
White to move. Puzzle 3 · rated 1074
White to move. Puzzle 4 · rated 1184
Black to move. Puzzle 5 · rated 1284
White to move. Puzzle 6 · rated 1365
Black to move. Puzzle 7 · rated 1470
White to move. Puzzle 8 · rated 1508
Black to move. Puzzle 9 · rated 1615
White to move. Puzzle 10 · rated 1619
Black to move.
Train these as a Woodpecker set
Ten puzzles show the pattern; repetition makes it automatic. Peck builds a 100-puzzle checkmate set from the same database and times you through 5 cycles, with a review queue for the ones you miss. Or take the PGN into any chess app and repeat it there.
FAQ
Checkmate puzzles: questions
How do I get better at spotting checkmates?
Drill a fixed set of mate puzzles until the common patterns are automatic, and always list every check in a position before looking at quieter moves.
Should I start with mate in 1 or mate in 3?
Start where you can calculate every line: mate in 1 and 2 for newer players, then mate in 3 once the basic patterns are instant. Longer mates are mostly the short patterns with forcing moves in front.
What are the most common checkmate patterns?
Back-rank mate, mates with a queen and bishop battery against a castled king, smothered mate with a knight, and mates along an open file with rooks or queen. This page mixes several of them.
Ready when you are
Make checkmate patterns automatic
Repeat one fixed set until you see the idea before you calculate it. Free, no ads, no credit card.
- 20–500 puzzles
- Choose your cycles
- Theme and rating filters
- Always free
