All of the problems on this site are: White to move, mate in two. This means that in the diagrammed position, it is White's turn to move. After White makes the proper move, no matter what Black moves, White can them checkmate Black on the next move.

These problems have only one solution (only one of the possible first moves for White can result in checkmate on the following move, no matter what Black does).

First, note where the King can move (if it can move at all). See which pieces are holding the King in place. Are any of them superfluous? If so, they are prime candidates for moving.

See if there is a square which, if one of your pieces were on it, it would result in immediate mate. Can you move a piece in such a way that it can get to that mating square on the second turn? If the mating square is guarded by a Black piece, can that piece be captured, so that the mating square will be available on White's second move?

Make sure that your move doesn't result in stalemate (leaving Black no move at all, but failing to put Black's King in check).

Keep in mind that composers of chess problems normally do not clutter up the board with unnecessary pieces. Every piece on the board is usually there for a reason.

If Black has the possibility of checking the White King, after your proposed move, then your move is wrong unless you can get out of check and deliver checkmate in one move (possible, but rare).

Don't forget that Black has to move. Sometimes this is the basis of the solution! White may only have to play a waiting game--holding the critical parts of the position (which usually means keeping the King frozen in his tracks)--until after Black moves and opens up the mating possibility.

With these thoughts in mind, let's work through a sample problem together:

First, we note that the Black King only has one move: h3. The White King is keeping Black's King from g2, g3, and g4, while the White Queen is keeping the Black King from g5 and h5.

Next, we note that if White's Queen were at g4, it would be mate.

The Queen can't move to g4 this turn, but it could move to a square from which it could make it to g4 on the following turn.

Finally, we note that since the composer chose to give Black a Pawn, it probably means that we can go ahead and trap Black's King this move--it won't be stalemate because the Pawn can still move.

Now our plan is clear: we will move the Queen in such a way that we will cut off the h3 escape square, permit the Pawn to move, and be ready to move the Queen to g4 on the next move.

Have you figured out the correct move?

Here's a hint: there are seven squares that the Queen could move to in order to be able to move to g4 on the second move. But only one of these squares cuts the King off from h3 (thus immobilizing the King).

Did you get it? The solution is:

1. Qf5

This is the only move which results in a certain mate on White's next move. Black now has only one move: 1. … c5, and so cannot prevent 2. Qg4.

This problem was composed by T. Shonberger in 1925 and is considered easy.

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