Top 11 rarest checkmates in chess

1. En passant checkmate

This checkmate requires you to play en passant — that special pawn capture that only happens when your opponent moves a pawn two squares forward from its starting position, and your pawn is right next to it. Instead of capturing the pawn normally, you capture it "in passing," as if it had moved only one square. En passant itself is already rare and surprising to see in games.

But now imagine pulling off en passant as a checkmate move! It’s incredibly difficult because the timing and position have to be just right. Your opponent’s king must be trapped so tightly that capturing en passant simultaneously delivers checkmate, leaving no escape squares or blocking pieces.

This checkmate is a true gem—one that most players never see in their entire chess career. It combines a unique rule with precise tactics and positioning, making it one of the hardest and most memorable mates to execute.

2. Smothered Mate

This one happens when a knight checkmates the king that’s stuck because its own pieces are blocking all the escape squares. The king can’t move anywhere, and the knight jumps in to deliver the checkmate. It’s tricky because you need to get the knight to the right spot and sometimes even sacrifice your queen to trap the king like that.

3. Boden’s Mate

Boden’s Mate is when two bishops work together to deliver checkmate, usually by attacking the king along two different diagonals. It’s tricky because the king has to be trapped behind its own pieces or pawns, and you have to perfectly coordinate your bishops so they can “crossfire” on the king. The opponent’s pieces usually block escape squares, and the bishops control the rest. Bishops on long diagonals cut off the king’s movement, and the king has no squares to run to.

4. Arabian Mate
Arabian Mate uses a rook and a knight to checkmate a king trapped in a corner or along the edge of the board.

You need to coordinate the rook and knight so that the rook delivers check while the knight blocks the king’s escape squares. The king’s own pawns or pieces often help trap it.

The king is stuck in the corner, rook delivers the check, and the knight covers the escape squares.

5. Castling Checkmate
What is it?
Castling checkmate happens when you deliver checkmate by castling — that special move where the king moves two squares toward a rook and the rook jumps over the king. Normally, castling is a defensive move to protect your king, but in extremely rare and specially arranged positions, castling itself can deliver checkmate! 

This also gives you a chess.com achievement called "Castle Victory".

6. Fool's Mate

Fool’s Mate is the fastest possible checkmate in chess, happening in just two moves. It happens when White makes two very bad pawn moves that open up a deadly diagonal, allowing Black’s queen to deliver a quick checkmate.

Even though it’s the quickest mate, it almost never happens in real games because it requires White to make two huge mistakes right away—something beginners usually avoid or get warned about. Most players know not to expose their king’s diagonal so early.

7. Anastasia’s Mate

In Anastasia's mate, a knight and rook team up to trap the opposing king between the side of the board on one side and a friendly piece on the other. Often, the queen is first sacrificed along the a-file or h-file to achieve the position. A bishop can be used instead of a knight to the same effect. This checkmate gets its name from the novel Anastasia und das Schachspiel by Johann Jakob Wilhelm Heinse, but the novelist took the chess position from an essay by Giambattista Lolli.

8. Bishop and knight mate

The bishop and knight mate is one of the four basic checkmates and occurs when the king works together with a bishop and knight to force the opponent king to the corner of the board. The bishop and knight endgame can be difficult to master: some positions may require up to 34 moves (if both sides play perfectly) before checkmate can be delivered.

9. Blackburne's mate

Blackburne's mate is named for Joseph Henry Blackburne and is a rare method of checkmating. The checkmate utilizes enemy pieces (typically a rook) and/or the edge of the board, together with a friendly knight, to confine the enemy king's sideways escape, while a friendly bishop pair takes the remaining two diagonals off from the enemy king. Threatening Blackburne's mate, which sometimes goes in conjunction with a queen sacrifice, can be used to weaken Black's position.

10. Epaulette Mate
This mate occurs when the opposing King is sandwiched in between two pieces on the back rank with the Queen delivering mate from the opposing player's third rank vertically aligned with the King. The Epaulette Mate resembles the visual appearance of an ornamental shoulder piece sometimes worn by elite military personnel.

The Epaulette checkmate pattern is very similar to the Swallow’s Tail Mate.

Epaulette Mate Example

 
Diagram above: White plays 1.Qf6# Note how the black rook and pawn resembles the visual appearance of “decorations” on the king’s shoulders, hence the name Epaulette Mate. 

11. Swallow’s Tail Mate
Swallow’s Tail Mate is a checkmate pattern that visually resembles the appearance of a swallow’s tail. It’s also known as Gueridon’s Checkmate. Its appearance it’s very similar to the Epaulette Mate.

Swallow’s Tail Mate Example

 
Diagram above: The Swallow’s Tail Mate is an example of a checkmate pattern that is named after its visual appearance. The two black pawns behind the king, which also prevents the king from escaping, visually resemble a “swallow’s tail”.