The Hook Checkmate

The hook mate involves the use of a rook, knight, and pawn along with one enemy piece to limit the enemy king's escape. The rook is protected by the knight, and the knight is protected by the pawn, while the pawn also attacks one of the enemy king's escape squares.

In the following game my opponent walked right into a hook mate:

The Hook Mate is a very useful and instructive checkmate pattern that demonstrates optimal coordination between a rook and knight. The pattern is named after it’s visual appearance that resembles a hook.

This position was actually reached in a famous game between Frank James Marshall an William Ewart Napier, Brooklyn, 1898, Marshall demonstrated that he knew the hook mate very well–by promoting his pawn to a knight, instead of a queen.