First mating patterns
In short
Many games are decided by a few repeating mating pictures. The most common is the back-rank mate: a king stuck behind its own pawns on the first or last rank is checkmated by a rook or queen along that rank.
By the end you can
- Recognise the back-rank mate
- Recognise the queen-and-king mate
- Find mate in one in simple positions
The lesson
Many games are decided by a few repeating mating pictures. The most common is the back-rank mate: a king stuck behind its own pawns on the first or last rank is checkmated by a rook or queen along that rank.
Another frequent picture is the queen supported by her own king: the queen gives check right next to the enemy king, and because her king protects her, she cannot be captured.
Learn the pictures by heart. When the pattern appears in your game, your eyes will find it before your brain has to calculate.
Key points to remember
- Back-rank mate: king trapped by its own pawns
- Queen next to king, protected by her own king
- Know the pictures, then spot them in games
Examples
Show the solution
1. Ra8#
Show the solution
29. Rxe8#
Practise it
Solve puzzles on this idea: mate in 1 puzzles, back-rank mate puzzles.
Homework
Solve 15 mate-in-one puzzles; draw the back-rank picture from memory.
Free further reading
- Checkmates for Three Pieces, William Brett Fishburne (2003, public domain)
More checkmates lessons
- Checkmate and stalemate (Foundation)
- Mate with king and queen (Novice)
- Mate with king and rook (Novice)
- Ladder mate and classic patterns (Novice)
- Mate in two (Class F)
- Mating attacks in three moves (Class E)