You definitely know 2 checkmate moves (Fool's Mate), and 4 checkmate moves (Scholar's Mate), but do you know about 3 checkmate moves? Bring your friends, play white pawns, and your next game of chess will take longer to prepare than play. You can checkmate in three moves with or without eating your opponent's pieces. For either of these methods to work, your opponent has to play pretty badly, but maybe you can surprise him from the start too.
Step
Method 1 of 2: Checkmate in Three Steps by Eating Opponent's Pawns
Step 1. Move your king pawn forward to e4
In both of these methods, the key is your queen. You'll be using the Queen to checkmate, so in your first move you'll need to pave the way for the queen to move diagonally. By moving the king pawn two squares forward onto the e4 square, you will get a result like this (e4).
- If you're not familiar with chess algebraic notation, please read this wikiHow article to learn.
- Just like when freeing a queen, you need your opponents to display their king. If then the opponent (black side) moves their elephant pawn 2 squares to f5 to feed the white pawn, then checkmate in three moves starts immediately!
Step 2. Eat your opponent's pawn in the f5 square
Now, use your pawns to eat up your advancing opponent's pawns by attacking diagonally. This step is denoted as “e4xf5”. You are currently pushing your opponent to move his elephant pawn to advance 2 squares to g5, next to your pawn.
- It's not a smart move from your opponent, but maybe you can get him to do it.
- The point of this move is to make sure that nothing can get in your way to the opposing king once you take the next step.
Step 3. Move your white queen to h5 (Qh5)
Checkmate! Now you can move the queen sideways to h5 and ambush the opposing king. over! You'll notice that if your opponent hadn't moved their pawn forward on their last chance, they would have blocked your queen by putting a pawn in her path on g6.
Your opponent has to play in your favor to make these 3 checkmate moves really work
Step 4. Checkmate
Now you can beat the king by moving your queen diagonally to the side and celebrate a very quick victory. If your opponent has fallen into this trap, they might be a little annoyed, so don't laugh at them too much!
Method 2 of 2: Checkmate in 3 Steps without Eating an Opponent's Pawn
Step 1. Move your king pawn to d3
This method is very similar to the previous method. Basically, your goal is to make your opponent's elephant pawn and horse pawn advance one and two squares respectively, while you free the queen to make her move to h5. The end result is the same as the previous method.
- Try baiting your opponent to move the elephant pawn and the horse pawn.
- You need to make your opponent react by removing his elephant pawn one square to f6.
- This method can also work if your opponent moves his horse pawn forward two squares this time, as long as he moves his elephant pawn the next time.
Step 2. Move your queen pawn to e4
The next step is that you have to get your opponent to free your queen, so she can be in checkmate on the next move. To do this, move the white king pawn two squares forward to e4. Now you have opened the chance for your queen to reach h5.
To clear the way to your opponent's king, your opponent must move his horse Pawn two squares forward to g5
Step 3. Move the white queen to h5 (Qh5)
Checkmate! Well, you've trapped the opponent's king in the same position as in the previous method, but this time, you're doing it without even eating a single piece. Start. Ready. Play. Finished.
- Again, this seems simple, and it really is. So don't expect this method to work all the time!
- In theory, there are many variations on this method. The key move is to move your queen to h5, and the elephant pawn and horse pawn out of the way of the king.
Warning
- To be successful, you need an opponent who is either very cooperative, or maybe not quite aware of the game.
- Be careful applying this method to more serious games, as it may not work. If they play to your advantage, these 3 checkmate moves won't work.
