The checkmates that have names
About a dozen mating shapes recur often enough that players named them. Knowing the name is worthless; knowing the shape is worth a lot.
- 120 positions in the course
- Difficulty 525–2322
- Section: Checkmate Patterns
- 5 levels
Why mating patterns are named at all
A named mate is just a geometry that keeps happening: two bishops on crossing diagonals, a rook and knight cooperating on the h-file, a rook and knight side by side in the corner. The names are historical accident. The shapes are the point.
What they buy you is speed. A player who knows Anastasia's mate does not calculate it -- they see a knight on e7, a king on h7 and a rook that can reach h-file, and the mate is simply visible. That recognition is what separates finding a mate in four from never looking for one.
How to spot it
- Look at which of your pieces are already cooperating. Most named mates are two pieces, not three.
- Bishops on crossing diagonals into a castled king means Boden's mate is on the menu if the king can be forced to the wrong square.
- A knight controlling the king's flight squares plus any major piece arriving on the file or rank is the shape behind half the list.
- In the endgame, a rook and knight next to an enemy king in the corner is the Arabian mate and needs nothing else.
Three named mates to find
Three positions from the 120 in this skill, easiest first. The highlighted squares are the move your opponent has just played. Work it out before you open the answer.
Position 1
White to move. Find the best move.
Show the answer
34...Nxh7 35.Rxh7#
The line ends in checkmate. Two pieces cover every flight square between them, which is what every named mating pattern is underneath the name.
The position comes from an endgame of a real game, rated 525 for difficulty. The answer reaches checkmate.
Position 2
White to move. Find the best move.
Show the answer
40...gxh5 41.Rg1+ Kf5 42.Rf4#
The line ends in checkmate. Two pieces cover every flight square between them, which is what every named mating pattern is underneath the name.
The position comes from an endgame of a real game, rated 1329 for difficulty. The answer reaches checkmate.
Position 3
White to move. Find the best move.
Show the answer
37...Kf8 38.Qg7+ Ke7 39.Qxf7#
The line ends in checkmate. Two pieces cover every flight square between them, which is what every named mating pattern is underneath the name.
The position comes from an endgame of a real game, rated 1905 for difficulty. The answer reaches checkmate.
The ones worth learning first
Anastasia's mate, Boden's mate and the Arabian mate, in that order. All three occur in real games at every level, all three are two-piece patterns, and all three keep appearing in tactics that are nominally about something else.
The rest -- Damiano, Morphy, Pillsbury, Legal, the hook mate, the swallow's tail -- are worth meeting but not worth drilling as a list. You will absorb them from the positions, which is the right way round.
Questions people ask
What is Anastasia's mate?
A mate where a knight covers the squares around a king on the edge of the board -- typically a knight on e7 against a king on h7 -- and a rook or queen delivers mate along the h-file.
What is Boden's mate?
Mate by two bishops on crossing diagonals against a king that has castled queenside, usually after a sacrifice that opens the second diagonal by removing a pawn or forcing the king onto c8 or c1.
Do I need to memorise the names?
No. The names are a filing system for chess writers. What you need is to recognise the arrangements of pieces on sight, and you get that from solving positions rather than from reading a list.
Nearby patterns
Named Mates sits in Checkmate Patterns. The rest of that section: