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Essential Checkmate Patterns

Essential Checkmate Patterns

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FM Thomas Wolski
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Are you ready for some tricky checkmates?

This module contains 130 challenges selected by FM Tomas Wolski that cover all common checkmates and most uncommon checkmates that occur regularly in middlegame positions and sometimes in openings. Nearly all of the positions come from actual games, and the various themes are repeated from simple to more complex examples. This module is suitable for novice players up to intermediate players with Elo or USCF ratings up to 1600, and will enable them to recognize checkmate possibilities in their own games. Try these tricky checkmates today!

This is what you will learn:

  • Practice calculating over 100 tactics!
  • Hone your instinct to hunt the opponent's king!
  • Understand how to find uncommon and tricky checkmates!

The Classical Back Rank Mate

The Back Rank Mate is the most common of all mating patterns and can arise in many different shapes and forms. We will now look at the cleanest and most straight forward one.
1 Aufgabe

The Classical Smothered Mate

The Smothered Mate is one of the most satisfying mates to deliver during a game.
1 Aufgabe

The Classical Epaulettes Mate with Queen

The board is wide open. Both sides have several threats.
1 Aufgabe

Two Rooks Mate

The double rook mate can be achieved when the rooks control two adjoining files. The king to be mated has to be on the edge of the board.
1 Aufgabe

Not Two Rookie Mate

This position is almost identical to the one we just observed in the challenge called "Two Rooks Mate".
1 Aufgabe

Anastasia's Mate

Anastasia's Mate is a distant cousin of the Back Rank Mate.
1 Aufgabe

Anastasia's Mate on the side

We have previously seen how a king may get trapped by Anastasia's Mate on the back rank. But Anastasia's mate often also occurs on the side of the board.
1 Aufgabe

Bishop and Knight Mates (1)

The bishop and knight often work very well together when the knight controls the squares of the color that the attacking bishop cannot cover. We will now see a few examples of this.
1 Aufgabe

Bishop and Knight Mates (2)

The attacking bishop can sometimes be very far away and have the same affect.
1 Aufgabe

Bishop and Knight Mates (3)

There are a few other less common bishop and knight mates.
1 Aufgabe

Legal's Mate

It is estimated that Legal's Mate first occurred in the early 1700s.
1 Aufgabe

Convincing Teamwork

White has sacrificed a queen to reach this position. Black is also dreaming of mating White's king and will surely be on top unless White finds something good real fast.
1 Aufgabe

Smothered Mate with Pawn

The smothered mate with an attacking pawn is a close relative of the Classical Smothered Mate.
1 Aufgabe

Gueridon's Mate

Black's king was pulled out from its defensive cover by a double sacrifice. White is now down two pieces, but has the initiative.
1 Aufgabe

Reaching Greco's Mate

White has been pushing Black's king around for several moves.
1 Aufgabe

The Corner Mate

White has given up a queen for a rook to reach this position.
1 Aufgabe

Blackburned in the Corner

This is a slightly different aspect of Blackburne's Mate
2 Aufgaben

Lolli's Mate

Lolli's Mate features a queen and an advanced pawn on the sixth rank.
1 Aufgabe

Mayet's Mate

Mayet's Mate occurs when the attacking side has a strong bishop that controls the long diagonal that ends on the square next to the attacked king.
1 Aufgabe

Anderssen's Mate

Anderssen's Mate is a variation from Mayet's Mate.
1 Aufgabe

Pillsbury's Mate

Pillsbury's Mate is usually reached with a rook and a bishop. There are some similarities to Mayet's Mate.
1 Aufgabe

Damiano's Pawn Mate

Damiano's Pawn Mate is very common. Often a lot of material is sacrificed to reach this position.
1 Aufgabe

Morphy's Mate

Morphy's Mate has similarities to Pillsbury's Mate and various back rank mates.
1 Aufgabe

Easy Choice

Sometimes the coordination of the knight and bishop vs. the defending king varies slightly.
1 Aufgabe

Gueridon's Mate on the Side

Black has just sacrificed an exchange to remove a White bishop on c2 and open up White's king more.
1 Aufgabe

Surprise from Behind

This position could have occurred in the Evergreen game Andersson-Dufresne, Berlin 1954.
1 Aufgabe

The Arabian Mate

The Arabian Mate always involves a knight near the opponent's king in the corner.
1 Aufgabe

The Epaulettes Mate with Rook and Bishop

Black has sacrificed a queen to reach this unusual position.
1 Aufgabe

The Epaulettes Mate with Rook and Knight

Black has sacrificed a queen and a rook to reach this unusual position.
1 Aufgabe

The Epaulettes Mate with two Rooks

Black has sacrificed a queen to reach this position. However, White has several mate threats against Black's king.
1 Aufgabe

The Lateral Epaulettes Mate

White went on a sacrificing spree and gave up a queen and two knights to reach this messy position. Black has most of his pieces developed, yet the king is not safe.
1 Aufgabe

Stuck in the Middle

Both sides have played some odd moves in the opening. This has left their kings in the middle of the board.
2 Aufgaben

A Poor Greco's Bishop Sacrifice

Sometimes Greco's Bishop Sacrifice on h7 gets played without adequate preparation or analysis.
1 Aufgabe

Aiming for Legal's Mate

The possibility of reaching Legal's Mate can arise only when the losing side moves a bishop to an unprotected square where it appears to be safe.
2 Aufgaben

Anastasia Refuted

Generally speaking it is difficult to defend against Anastasia's Mate once the forced sequence of moves has started.
4 Aufgaben

Blackburne's Mate from afar

This is one of the variations from Blackburne's Mate.
1 Aufgabe

Caught in the corner

White sacrificed a queen to reach his position. Yet now all of his three attacking pieces (the h4-rook, the d3-bishop and the e5-knight) are attacked by Black pieces.
2 Aufgaben

Finding Greco's Mate

It is almost impossible to defend against Greco's Mate once certain conditions are reached and the combination leading to mate has started.
3 Aufgaben

Finding the correct check

This position arose in the game Andersson-Dufresne, Berlin 1854. White has just sacrificed a lot to keep his attack going and is now down a queen, a rook and a knight.
2 Aufgaben

Finishing the Exposed King

White has used Greco's Bishop Sacrifice to open up Black's King. Note that Black doesn't have any defensive piece anywhere near Black's king.
4 Aufgaben

Futile Attempt to escape

In many cases it is very difficult to protect the mating square in Damiano's Pawn Mate (here the h7-square). This is especially the case when there is a piece on g7 blocking the seventh rank.
2 Aufgaben

Greco's Mate

Greco's Mate should not be confused with Greco's famous bishop sacrifice on h7.
2 Aufgaben

Leading to the Arabian Mate

Black has tried to attack White's kingside and sacrificed a piece for a pawn to reach this position. But it appears as if White is still holding everything together.
2 Aufgaben

Legal's Relative

White has made many mistakes in this opening, including not castling, moving the knight to h4 and allowing Black to favorably sacrifice a queen for a knight.
2 Aufgaben

Looking for Twisted Gueridon

Material is even in this sharp position. Both sides have a slightly exposed king.
2 Aufgaben

Not Blackburne

Black had an advantage due to his control of the long a8-h1 diagonal. Rather than trying to build on this edge slowly, Black was eager to deliver Blackburne's Mate and played ...Qd8xh4.
2 Aufgaben

Not Boden

Since Boden's Mate is usually reached with a forcing sequence of moves, it is hard to defend against it. It is more a case of it either working for the attacker or not.
2 Aufgaben

Not Legal's Mate

White's opening looks a little suspect due to the position of the knight on e2 and the unprotected bishop on g5. But is this enough to justify Black's last move ...Nxe4?
1 Aufgabe

Not the Arabian Mate

Black sacrificed many pieces to reach this attacking position, thinking that he could force the Arabian Mate.
2 Aufgaben

Shepherd's Mate

This type of pawn structure often occurs in a middle game resulting from the Benoni Defense.
2 Aufgaben

Slight Miscalculation

Many players feel more comfortable attacking than defending. Good players, however, need to know how to do both.
3 Aufgaben

Smothered or Surviving?

White has sacrificed a piece to start a combination culminating in the Smothered Mate.
2 Aufgaben

Stopping the Corner Mate

Material is roughly even in this position with Black having an extra pawn for the exchange (White has an extra rook vs. a Black knight).
1 Aufgabe

The Two Knights Mate

Two knights can never mate a king by themselves. Similar to the Smothered Mate, there need to be some defensive pieces obstructing the king to be mated.
1 Aufgabe

Too Optimistic

On his previous move Black moved his rook on to the e-file. White didn't pay much attention to Black's ideas and instead attacked Black's h6-pawn by moving the dark-squared bishop from a5 to d2.
2 Aufgaben

A Big Surprise

White is up an exchange for a pawn. This is considered almost level. Had Black played the correct ...f7-f5 on his previous move, a long battle would have been guaranteed.
4 Aufgaben

Attack or Defense?

Material is even. Black has decided that it was time to mate White's king. After playing ...Nh6-g4, Black exerts pressure against h2.
2 Aufgaben

Bishop in Disguise

Sometimes a queen can fulfill the role of a bishop!
2 Aufgaben

Blackburne's Mate

Blackburne's Mate is delivered by two bishops and one knight.
2 Aufgaben

Ruthless Penetration

White has just played Rf1-e1 to avoid Blackburne's Mate. We have seen in the main line how White gets mated quickly after he played e2-e3 instead.
6 Aufgaben

Blackburne's Pawn

The players have castled on opposite wings and tried to attack each other's kings. So far, both defenses appear to remain in control.
2 Aufgaben

Boden's Mate

Boden's Mate has surprised many strong players over the board. The main features are the attacker's bishop pair and the defending king's lack of space.
2 Aufgaben

Boden's Relative

One careless move is often what makes the difference between a normal balanced position and running into a mate.
2 Aufgaben

Cutting the Defense in Half

The position appears to have a very drawish character. Material is even and the opposite-colored bishops are both rather ineffective since they are on the color of their central pawns.
3 Aufgaben

Damiano's Bishop Mate

Damiano's Bishop Mate is similar to Damiano's Pawn Mate. The supporting piece will be on the same square. But instead of a pawn it is a more versatile bishop.
3 Aufgaben

Damiano's Pawn Power

When there isn't a pawn on the square diagonally from the corner (g2, g7, b2 or b7), then the king can try to run for his life and won't get mated on the typical square (h2, h7, a2 or a7).
3 Aufgaben

Deadly Diagonal

Certainly one needs to use all means possible to reach a checkmate.
2 Aufgaben

Defending against Anderssen's Mating Attack

Black has sacrificed a piece and is now threatening Anderssen's Mate.
4 Aufgaben

Defending Against Damiano's Mate Threat

Without sacrificing any material, White was able to start a mating attack on the kingside. His last move, Qh5, created a serious threat.
3 Aufgaben

Defending against Greco's Bishop Sacrifice

After Black played ...Bb7 previously, White advanced the e4-pawn to e5 and attacked Black's f6-knight.
4 Aufgaben

Defending against Lolli's Mate

Sometimes the defense has to be creative in order to avoid falling to Lolli's Mate.
3 Aufgaben

Defending against the Arabian Mate Threat (1)

Defending against the Arabian Mate is often impossible because the attacking rook controls the seventh rank cutting off the cornered king.
4 Aufgaben

Defending against the Arabian Mate Threat (2)

The Arabian Mate can also occur on the other side of the board after one has castled queenside.
2 Aufgaben

Defense too slow

Sometimes the defender is able to fend off Lolli's Mate, but will be helpless against a different mate.
3 Aufgaben

Diverting the Defense

Black has sacrificed a piece to reach this position. He has two pawns for it and was hoping to make use of his earlier initiative.
3 Aufgaben

Double Smothered

A lively middle game battle is taking place in this position. Black has sacrificed two pawns for some attacking chances.
2 Aufgaben

Doubled Pawns at Their Worst

Doubled pawns are usually seen as a positional burden, especially as one gets closer to an endgame.
3 Aufgaben

Ever heard of Boden?

The Boden Mate has several different aspects to it. It is important to be familiar with them and recognize them quickly when they occur in a game.
3 Aufgaben

Fighting for control of the mate square

Sometimes the attacking side must go to great lengths in order to be able to deliver Lolli's Mate.
4 Aufgaben

Finding Mayet's Mate

Sometimes Mayet's Mate occurs in an unusual form.
2 Aufgaben

Finding Morphy's Mate

Morphy's Mate usually features a rook and a bishop. Several friendly pieces have to obstruct the king for a mate to be possible.
3 Aufgaben

Finding the Smothered Mate with Pawn

To reach any smothered mate generally requires a sacrifice that pulls one of the king's defenders away from the mating square. While doing so, this defender often ends up smothering the king as well.
3 Aufgaben

Grazing for Shepherd's Mate

Black has sacrificed an exchange to obtain active piece play. His last move, ...Nc5-d3, leaves White's pieces on c1, b2 and d5 attacked.
3 Aufgaben

Insufficient coverage

Many of the most exciting positions occur when both players attack each other's kings on opposite sides of the board.
3 Aufgaben

Keeping Tight Control

There are a few different aspects of Damiano's Bishop Mate.
4 Aufgaben

Leading to Anastasia's Mate

Both sides are attacking each other's king. Black is up a knight for two pawns, but his king is wide open.
2 Aufgaben

Leading to Pillsbury's Mate

Pillsbury's Mate can be reached when the pawn shelter in front of the enemy's king is ripped open.
3 Aufgaben

Leading to The Two Knights Mate

Black has barely been able to defend his king. Finally, he thought, he was able to start some counter play with ...g4-g3.
2 Aufgaben

Looking for Anastasia

Having the initiative, i.e., being able to move first in a sequence of moves and making the other person react to one's moves, makes the difference.
3 Aufgaben

Looking for Epaulettes

White has invested two pieces to stop Black's king from castling to safety.
2 Aufgaben

Looking for the Classical Smothered Mate

The Smothered Mate can often be reached by the combination of queen and knight. In most cases it requires the losing side to have his king run out of air in the corner of the board.
5 Aufgaben

Not an Absolute Pin

White is lacking in this respect due to his uncastled king in the center of the board.
3 Aufgaben

Not Anastasia's Mate

Some positions can look very similar to the ones that produce fantastic mating nets. It is important to be able to distinguish between the real thing and the positions that are illusions.
4 Aufgaben

Perpetual Check or More?

The two sides have castled on opposite wings and have tried to create some pressure against each other's monarchs.
4 Aufgaben

Queen and Rook vs. an Exposed King (1)

Time is of the utmost importance in a chess battle. The player who wastes too much time with useless maneuvers will certainly find himself reacting to his opponent's moves.
4 Aufgaben

Queen and Rook vs. an Exposed King (2)

This is the variation that could occur if Black doesn't accept the original rook sacrifice 1.Rxg7+ and tries to hide in the corner with 1...Kh8.
4 Aufgaben

Reaching Lolli's Mate

Lolli's Mate can be reached on either side of the board by either player.
3 Aufgaben

Reaching the Corner Mate

White is down a pawn, but White's knight is more actively placed than Black's.
4 Aufgaben

Reaching the Two Rooks Mate

White's last move, Bf5-d3, pinned Black's rook on b5 to Black's queen. White was hoping that the exchange of rooks would leave him with a superior endgame.
2 Aufgaben

Searching for Anderssen's Mate

Anderssen's Mate can arise from seemingly ordinary and harmless positions.
4 Aufgaben

Searching for Damiano's Pawn Mate

To reach any checkmate the defender must have made a mistake. In this case the root of the problem was carelessness and a premature attack.
5 Aufgaben

Setting up Pillsbury

Sometimes it appears as if Pillsbury's Mate is close, but cannot be reached.
3 Aufgaben

Smothering Assistance

Whenever a player has more attacking pieces near the king than the defender has defending pieces, tactical combinations are likely to work.
3 Aufgaben

Superior Pieces

After a series of piece exchanges, Black was quite happy to have won the exchange.
2 Aufgaben

X-Ray Vision

Often the defender will think he has the mate square adequately covered.
2 Aufgaben

Borrowing from Mayet and Anastasia

When you are familiar with certain mating patterns, you will recognize them in different types of positions. Sometimes you can combine different mating patterns to reach the desired result.
5 Aufgaben

Breaking Down the Arabian Defense

White is up a pawn in this position. But has been fully immersed in defending against Black's efforts to create an Arabian Mate.
4 Aufgaben

Cutting off Communications

Material is even, but Black's pieces are more active. White, on the other hand, is hoping to win the c4-pawn.
4 Aufgaben

Decisive Edge in Development

White has an edge in development. But Black's last move, ...Ng8f6, attacked White's queen. Since White's knight on d4 is also unprotected, White appears to be in trouble.
4 Aufgaben

Defending against Mayet's Mate

Often one will have a free move to defend against Mayet's mate threat. But not always does one have enough defensive resources available to survive such an attack.
3 Aufgaben

Defense or Attack?

Black is up a pawn and has just created some mate threats by moving his queen from c5 to a3. Yet his lack of development could be a problem.
3 Aufgaben

Extraordinary Efforts

Sometimes the attacking side must make extraordinary efforts to break through.
5 Aufgaben

Giving up Everything for Mate

Sometimes there is only a very narrow path to victory.
4 Aufgaben

Greco's Delightful Sacrifice

This position could occur in a French Defense if Black plays carelessly. However, the overall characteristics of this attack can be found in many positions in the late opening or early middlegame.
8 Aufgaben

Mayet's Mate with Heavy Pieces

Again we see the absence of a defensive dark-squared bishop in Black's king position. This makes it possible to think about reaching Mayet's Mate.
4 Aufgaben

Pillsbury's Original

This position occurred in the game Pillsbury-Lee from 1899.
4 Aufgaben

Rook Power

When players have opposite colored bishops in a middle game, it is common that one attacks the opponent on the squares of that color.
4 Aufgaben

Searching for Gueridon's Mate

This type of position can easily arise from common King's Pawn Openings (after 1.e4 e5). Both sides have made normal developing moves until Black's last move, Nf6-d7.
4 Aufgaben

Setting up the Epaulettes Mate

This complex middlegame position is full of tactical complications. White's king is more exposed than Black's, but his advanced pawns promise victory if Black doesn't find a quick solution.
4 Aufgaben

Stalling the Eager Defense

When the defending side has a rook next to the king (here c8) and a full pawn shelter (here pawns on c7, b7 and a7),
5 Aufgaben

Straight forward

The two sides have castled on opposite wings with the intention of throwing everything they have at each other's kings. It is surprising how quickly the second player will collapse.
4 Aufgaben

The supremacy of the double check

Material is even, yet Black is attacking two of White's pieces with his pawns. Black's position also appears very solid, so White must create something special.
4 Aufgaben

Defensive Collapse

White has played an opening similar to the Hedgehog defense with an extra tempo. However, things got messy quickly when White opted to win a pawn on g7.
3 Aufgaben

Favorable Simplifications

The board is on fire with many pieces facing each other.
4 Aufgaben

Morphy's Paralysis

Sometimes a sacrifice doesn't lead to immediate checkmate, but to a dominating position that will lead to mate sooner or later.
8 Aufgaben

Sacrificing the House

Sometimes a seemingly innocent position can turn into a wildfire if one is willing to tolerate the heat and escape victorious.
5 Aufgaben

Staying in Control

When your opponent has a difficult position it is important to know which move(s) would allow the opponent to escape and to make sure there's no time to recover.
9 Aufgaben

The Evergreen Game

The current position arose in the game Andersson-Dufresne, Berlin 1954. Due to the fantastic finish, it has been called the Evergreen Game.
5 Aufgaben

The Evergreen Variation

We will now explore a highly fascinating variation that could have occurred in the Evergreen game Andersson-Dufresne, Berlin 1852.
7 Aufgaben

The Original Anderssen

A similar position to this one occurred in the game Anderssen- Zukertort from 1869.
5 Aufgaben

Essential Checkmate Patterns

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Datum der Veröffentlichung: November 12, 2007

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