Helpmate

A helpmate is a kind of chess problem in which black moves first and helps white to checkmate him within a specified number of moves. In a helpmate in two (sometimes abbreviated to h#2), for example, the solution consists of a black move, a white move, a black move, and then another white move, giving checkmate. It should be noted that although the two sides are cooperating, all moves must be legal according to the rules of chess.

Further reading

• Chris Feather, Black to Play (F. Chlubna, Vienna, 1994) - a general survey of helpmates