The Hidden Back Rank Problem
Hi Chess Friends,
While preparing a lesson on back rank mates, I looked through my collection of tactics and realized that the bank rank mate theme is somewhat more broad based than what I had usually thought of. For example, the typical back rank mate puzzle looks something like this.
However, most of the time in real games, a weak back rank has to be combined with some other ideas for you to gain an advantage.
It shouldn't be surprising that most back rank tactics aren't isolated from other themes in the position. Chess is complicated! See if you can find the checkmating or material winning ideas in the following positions, and feel free to leave any fun back rank examples of your own in the comments.
NM Jeremy Kane is the Instructional Content Manager for Chess.com, and the author of several courses in the Starting Out series, Queen’s Gambit Accepted, Trompowsky, and Tarrasch.