MATE IN 3 MOVES (HARD)

apurv

is 1....e4 2Qg4 a better move?

apurv 14..... 4.Qc8 was faster mate

Well, if it's just about showing a helpmate, you could have said mate in two (easy):

apurv14 , it is a check mate in 3. You are correct that black's first move 1... a5 is not forced, but after white's first move it does not matter what black replies. He can simply not escape a check mate in a total of 3 moves.

You need to figure out the point of white's first move in order to understand the puzzle, like why wouldn't it work to move the bishop to any other square on the diaginal c8-h3?

So here we go: 1. Bh3 a5. Now black did have 4 other possibilities, Ka8, Kb8, Kc7 or e4. If he plays any of them then white will play 2. Qg4, and now you can see why the bishop went to h3. It needs to be behind the queen. There will be a check mate in next move:

Thanks for the explanations, BlueKnightShade. Nice.

1. Bh3!!

You are welcome!

hehe but tell me why you placed the black king in a8 as if it was the only possibity for black. You clearly didn't understand the puzzle! After Qxe5, instead of Ka8, try a5 and you'll see you can't checkmate in 3 moves anymore, let alone in 2 lol

It's a mate in 3 moves puzzle, not in 5. Of course you can force a mate in other ways and in more moves in scenaries like these when one has a great advantage against the other, but the challenge of these puzzles is normally to figure out how to checkmate in the least moves possible. All the puzzles I post have a solution, so even hard to solve, they are doable! And all of them have a logic.

Alternatively...

1. Qh5 => 2. Qe8 => 3. Qc8

hahahaha and the black response moves dude??? They don't exist?

Do you see that 2 paws by the side of the black king?

So think what those 2 paws can do while the white queen does the path you refer above and you'll realize the mate in 3 moves is not possible this way.

I insist that the only way to mate in 3 moves in this case is Bh3 and the following moves shown in the solution. There's no other possibility!

I didn't include the black moves because by my analysis no move black would make would matter with the provided moves by white.  Maybe I missed something, show me the moves by black that would avoid a mate in 3.

1. Qh5 a5 2. Qe8 a6 3. Qc8+ Ka7 and you didn't mate in 3. White is totally winning but it was not the question.

Therefore, there is only one solution: 1. Bh3!!

Seems obvious now in hindsight.  Thanks for the explanation.

...

what's funny?

start qh4