Practice the Anastasia's Mate here!
Anastasia's Mate
Back to the checkmating series! This time, let's have a look at the Anastasia's Mate.
Below is the basic checkmate pattern of the Anastasia's Mate.
This checkmate pattern is really similar to the Back Rank Mate, except that it is delivered sideways, with the king on the g-file, not on the 8th rank. However, because kings seldom go up the board, this checkmate pattern is more rare.
This checkmate pattern is usually delivered with two pieces at least. The first piece, usually a knight or bishop, creating a 'wall' so that the opponent king cannot escape to the file adjacent to it, and the other piece, a rook or a queen, delivering the mate.
This checkmate pattern usually requires one of the opponent's pawns to stand in the way of their king, to 'help' create the wall, as seen in the above position.
In the above position, the White knight is currently taking away all the king's escape squares on the g-file, g4 and g6, while our rook makes the death blow, sliding to the h-file, delivering checkmate.
Now it's your turn to practice the checkmate pattern with the below puzzles! Enjoy!
Puzzle 1 (Difficulty: 1/5): How can White deliver the Anastasia's Mate in 4 moves here?
Puzzle 2 (Difficulty: 2/5): How can White deliver checkmate here even though White is down 2 points?
Puzzle 3 (Difficulty: 3/5): Black just played bxa4, hoping to tear open White's queenside and expose White's king. But White can checkmate here using the Anastasia's Mate here! Can you see it?
Puzzle 4 (Difficulty: 4/5): This really shocked me. As Black, I was totally winning with a queen and a pawn for only a bishop and knight. I was running out of time, so I just tried to push White's knight away, little did I know that this led me to lose the game when White happily took my queen of the board. How?
Part 1: Win the queen!
Part 2: You maybe are thinking: why didn't I play Ka8 instead of Kc8 where my queen would be lost? There is a clear reason why. Checkmate Black!
Puzzle 5 (Difficulty: 3/5): Black is up a queen only for a knight. But how can White coordinate all his pieces to checkmate Black with only the material he has now?
Well done for finishing those puzzles! Some are definitely tough, and I hope through them, you have fully learnt and understood the Anastasia's Mate! Now it's your turn to snatch the win with the Anastasia's Mate!
Thank you and have a nice day (or evening 
)!
