Checkmate Flashcards: Anastasia's Mate

My favorite mate patterns are ones that do not include the Queen.  This allows the Queen to be sacrificed to create the position needed for the checkmate.  Whenever I sacrifice my Queen for a pawn in front of the King I often imagine the scene from the Lord of the Rings: Two Towers during the battle at Helm's Deep when an Uruk Hai sacrifices himself to explode the bomb that blasts a hole in the wall.

First we'll examine the mate pattern, then we'll see it used in a game situation with a Queen sacrifice.

And now for the game situation: