What is Forced Mate?

A Forced Mate in chess refers to a situation where a sequence of moves, irrespective of the opponent's responses, leads to a checkmate. In other words, it's a situation where it's guaranteed that one player will checkmate the other one, no matter what defensive moves the threatened player makes. The exact number of moves until the checkmate can often be specified, like 'mate in three', meaning checkmate is inevitable in three moves.