It has taken a lot of courage to talk about a chess tactical device that has cost me countless won games. I am talking about the dreaded back rank mate. That is generally a position like this, where the castled king is trapped behind his pawns:
Though back rank mates can be easily prevented with a pawn push, what makes them deadly is that they can happen with just a simple slip of the mind. I'm sure that almost everybody can say that they have kingside castled and then moved the rook off the defending rank only to be mated. In blitz they happen to good players all the time. Stuffing up is very easy to do!
Love this mate! I've won countless games where I have been losing ... down material and my opponent lulled by the confidence in their games forgets that all that is needed for checkmate is one rook.
It has taken a lot of courage to talk about a chess tactical device that has cost me countless won games. I am talking about the dreaded back rank mate. That is generally a position like this, where the castled king is trapped behind his pawns:
Though back rank mates can be easily prevented with a pawn push, what makes them deadly is that they can happen with just a simple slip of the mind. I'm sure that almost everybody can say that they have kingside castled and then moved the rook off the defending rank only to be mated. In blitz they happen to good players all the time. Stuffing up is very easy to do!