Mating Patterns
Named mating configurations that every club player should recognise.
Mating Patterns
Named mating configurations that every club player should recognise.
A mating pattern is a recurring arrangement of pieces that delivers checkmate. Memorising patterns reduces the calculation required in similar positions — the pattern alerts the player that a forcing sequence may be available.
The checkmate patterns directory contains an illustrated entry for each pattern with an interactive position. What follows is a short index of the patterns every club player should know.
Back-rank mate
A major piece on the opponent's back rank checkmates a king whose escape squares are blocked by its own pawns. The simplest and most frequently occurring of all mating patterns.
Scholar's mate
Scholar's mate is an early attack on f7 with queen and bishop that mates an unprepared defender in four moves. The position is shown in the checkmate article. It is the commonest beginner trap and the usual demonstration of why the queen should not be brought out too early.
Fool's mate
Fool's mate is the shortest possible game: 1.f3 e5 2.g4 Qh4#. Two consecutive weakening pawn moves by White allow Black's queen to reach h4 with no defender and a mating diagonal.
Smothered mate
In a smothered mate the king is mated by a knight because its own pieces occupy every adjacent escape square. The classic sequence — often called Philidor's Legacy — uses a queen sacrifice on the back rank to force the king into the corner, followed by the knight delivering mate.
Anastasia's mate
A knight and rook combine to mate a king on the edge of the board. The pattern is named after a position in Wilhelm Heinse's 1803 novel Anastasia und das Schachspiel.
Boden's mate
Two bishops on criss-crossing diagonals mate a king whose escape squares are blocked by its own pieces. The pattern occurs most often after queenside castling and is named after the nineteenth-century English master Samuel Boden.
Légal's mate
Two knights and a bishop deliver mate after the defender's pinning bishop is drawn away by a queen sacrifice on d1. Named after Sire de Légal, who played the original game in the mid-eighteenth century.
Arabian mate
In the Arabian mate a rook and knight combine to mate a king in the corner. One of the oldest recorded patterns, it is named for its appearance in shatranj, the Arabic precursor of modern chess.