Pocket Shuffle Chess

Chess Puzzles: Mate in 1, 2 and 3

Solve free checkmate puzzles: mate in 1, mate in 2 and mate in 3. Instant feedback, forced replies, no account and no download needed.

Solve checkmate puzzles in your browser for free. Every puzzle is a forced mate, so there is exactly one winning idea to find and the opponent's replies are forced.

Puzzle types

• Mate in 1 - one move ends the game. Best for learning the basic mating patterns: back rank, smothered mate, and queen-plus-support mates.
• Mate in 2 - usually a quiet move or a sacrifice first, then the mate. This is where most players start training real calculation.
• Mate in 3 - a longer forcing sequence. You have to see the opponent's best defence and answer it before you commit.

How to solve a mate puzzle

1. Find every check you have available, and look at the most forcing one first.
2. Check which squares the enemy king can still escape to - a mate only works if all of them are covered.
3. Look for defenders you can remove, deflect or block.
4. Consider sacrifices: giving up material is often the point in a mate-in-2 or mate-in-3.

These puzzles are set on the compact Pocket Shuffle Chess board, so the mating patterns arrive faster than on a full 8x8 board, but the pieces move by standard chess rules.