Pillsbury's mate

The same two pieces as the opera mate with their jobs swapped: the rook checks from far away, and the bishop is not defending anything, it is taking a square.

19 positions in the course match this pattern
Lichess rating 919–2115
Section: Checkmate Patterns
Every line verified by the app’s rules engine

The pattern

The pattern, finished. The black king on h8 is in check from the rook on f8. It has three squares to try and none of them work: h7 is covered by the bishop on e4; g8 is covered by the rook on f8; g7 is blocked by its own pawn.

The rook checks along a file or a rank from a distance, typically down the g-file at a castled king once the pawn there has gone. Because it is not adjacent to the king it does not need defending, and because it is on an open line the king cannot block it.

The bishop stands on a long diagonal, aimed at the corner the king is in or beside. Its job is one square: the square the rook's line does not reach. Against a black king on g8 with the rook on g1, that square is h8, and a bishop anywhere on a1-h8 covers it.

This is the cleanest illustration of why rook and bishop mate and rook and knight mate differently. The rook takes a whole line; the bishop takes the one square at the end of it. Compare the opera mate, which uses the same two pieces with the rook adjacent and the bishop defending it rather than covering a square.

What is always true

Each line below was tested against all 19 positions in this course that show the pattern, using the same rules engine the trainer runs on. The build stops if any of them is ever false, so the count beside each one is the real count.

The checking piece is a rook 19/19
The rook checks along the king's own file or rank, from a distance 19/19
A bishop covers at least one of the king's escape squares 19/19
That same bishop stands on one of the two long diagonals 19/19

How to spot it

A castled king whose g-pawn or h-pawn has moved or been traded off, leaving a file into it.
Any bishop of yours on the long diagonal pointing into that corner, including one still sitting on b2 or g2 from the opening.
A rook that can double or lift onto the file. Very often the mate is one tempo away and the whole problem is finding a check that gains it.
The defender's dark-squared bishop. If it is still on the board and can reach the long diagonal, the pattern usually does not exist.

4 positions to solve

Real games, easiest first. The amber squares are the move your opponent has just played, not the answer. Work it out before you open the solution; the second diagram inside each answer is the finished mate with the trapped king outlined.

Position 1

White to move. Force the mate.

Show the answer

23...Bc8 24.Rxe8#

The black king on g8 is in check from the rook on e8. It has five squares to try and none of them work: f8 and h8 are covered by the rook on e8; g7 is covered by the bishop on d4; f7 and h7 are blocked by its own pawns.

The position comes from the middlegame of a real game, rated 919 in the Lichess pool and scored there as mate in one. The amber squares on the first diagram are the move your opponent had just played.

Position 2

White to move. Force the mate.

Show the answer

19...a6 20.Rc1+ Bc5 21.Rxc5#

The black king on c8 is in check from the rook on c5. It has five squares to try and none of them work: b8 and c7 are covered by the bishop on e5; d7 is covered by the bishop on b5; b7 and d8 are blocked by its own pieces.

The position comes from the middlegame of a real game, rated 1407 in the Lichess pool and scored there as mate in two. The amber squares on the first diagram are the move your opponent had just played.

Position 3

Black to move. Force the mate.

Show the answer

38.Ke4 38...Bc6+ 39.Ke5 39...Re3#

The white king on e5 is in check from the rook on e3. It has eight squares to try and none of them work: e4 and e6 are covered by the rook on e3; d4 is covered by the pawn on c5; d5 is covered by the bishop on c6; f5 is covered by the pawn on g6; d6, f4 and f6 are blocked by its own pieces.

The position comes from an endgame of a real game, rated 1816 in the Lichess pool and scored there as mate in two. The amber squares on the first diagram are the move your opponent had just played.

Position 4

Black to move. Force the mate.

Show the answer

31.Kxc2 31...Ra3+ 32.Kc1 32...Ra1#

The white king on c1 is in check from the rook on a1. It has five squares to try and none of them work: b1 and c2 are covered by the bishop on e4; b2, d1 and d2 are blocked by its own pieces.

The position comes from an endgame of a real game, rated 2115 in the Lichess pool and scored there as mate in two. The amber squares on the first diagram are the move your opponent had just played.

Drill the named mates until you see them 120 positions on the named mating patterns, in five graded levels, in the free Reflex Chess trainer. No account needed to start. Practise named mates

Where the name comes from

It is named after Harry Nelson Pillsbury, the American who won the Hastings tournament of 1895 on his first appearance in Europe, ahead of the world champion and most of the players who had held or would hold the title. Beyond the name, this page will not attach the pattern to a specific game it cannot source.

Easy to confuse with

These are the patterns Pillsbury's Mate gets mistaken for. The difference is usually one piece or one square.

Questions people ask

What is Pillsbury's mate?

A checkmate in which a rook gives check from a distance along a file or rank and a bishop on a long diagonal covers the one square the rook's line cannot reach.

How is Pillsbury's mate different from the opera mate?

Both use a rook and a bishop. In the opera mate the rook is on the square next to the king and the bishop defends it. In Pillsbury's the rook checks from further away, needs no defender, and the bishop is covering an escape square instead.

Who was Pillsbury?

Harry Nelson Pillsbury, an American player who won Hastings 1895 at his first international tournament and was among the strongest players in the world until his early death in 1906.

All the named mates

One page each, or the whole set as a single motif in the course. The rest of the tactics library is at every motif in the course.