MATING PATTERNS

Anastasia’s Mate
Definition : Anastasia’s Mate is a great example of how a knight and rook can cooperate to
checkmate the opponent’s king on the side of the board

Anderssen’s Mate
Definition: In Anderssen's mate, the rook or queen is supported by a diagonally attacking
piece such as a pawn or bishop as it checkmates the opposing king along the eighth rank.
 Back Rank Mate
Definition : The back-rank mate occurs when a rook or queen checkmates a king that is
blocked in by its own pieces (usually pawns) on the first or eighth rank.

Arabian Mate
Definition : In the Arabian mate, the knight and the rook team up to trap the opposing king
on a corner of the board. The rook sits on a square adjacent to the king both to prevent
escape along the diagonal and to deliver checkmate while the knight sits two squares
away diagonally from the king to prevent escape on the square next to the king and to
protect the rook.
 Balestra Mate
Definition:The balestra mate involves a queen cutting off the king's
escape both diagonally and vertically whilst having a bishop deliver checkmate.

Blackburne’s Mate
Definition : This checkmate utilises enemy pieces (typically a rook) and/or the edge of the
board, together with a friendly knight, to confine the enemy king's sideways escape, while
a friendly bishop pair takes the remaining two diagonals off from the enemy
king.Threatening Blackburne's mate, which sometimes goes in conjunction with a queen
sacrifice, can be used to weaken Black's position.
 Blind Swine Mate
Definition :The blind swine mate pattern referrs to doubled rooks on a
player's 7th rank as “swine".For this type of mate, the rooks on White's
7th rank can start on any two files from a to e, and although black pawns are commonly
present as shown, they are not necessary to deliver the mate.

Boden’s Mate
Definition: Boden's mate involves two attacking bishops on criss-crossing diagonals
delivering checkmate to a king obstructed by friendly pieces, usually a rook and a pawn.
 Corner Mate
Definition : The corner mate is a common method of checkmating. It
works by confining the king to the corner using a rook or queen with a
pawn blocking the final escape square and using a minor piece to engage the checkmate.

Corridor Mate
Definition : The Corridor Mate is a checkmate pattern that features the enemy king that
can’t escape from check because it’s trapped along a rank, file or diagonal (corridor).
 Diagonal Corridor Mate
Definition: In this checkmate pattern , king is trapped diagonally (corridor
is blocked diagonally) by the bishops.

Cozio’s Mate (Dovetail Mate)

Definition: It involves trapping the black king in the pattern shown. It does not matter how
the queen is supported and it does not matter which type Black's other two pieces are so
long as neither is an unpinned knight.
 Damiano’s Mate
Definition : Damiano’s mate is a classic method of checkmating and one
of the oldest. It works by confining the king with a pawn and using a queen to execute the
checkmate. Damiano's mate is often arrived at by first sacrificing a rook on the h-file, then
checking the king with the queen on the a-file or h-file, and then moving in for the mate.

David and Goliath Mate

Definition:The David and Goliath Mate is a checkmate pattern characterized by the fact that
a humble pawn checkmates the opponent’s king.
 Epaulette Mate
Definition : In Epaulette Mate ,the black rooks resembles the visual
appearance of “decorations” on the king’s shoulders, hence the name
Epaulette Mate.

Fool’s Mate
Definition: In chess, Fool's Mate, also known as the "two-move checkmate", is
the checkmate delivered after the fewest possible moves from the game's starting position
 Greco’s Mate
Definition:Greco’s Mate is a checkmate pattern where the enemy
king is trapped in a corner with the help of a bishop.

Hook Mate
Definition:The Hook mate involves the use Rook, knight, and pawn along with one black
pawn to limit the black king's escape. The rook is protected by the knight and the knight is
protected by the pawn.
 Kill Box Mate
Definition:The Kill Box Mate is a checkmate pattern where a queen and
rook work together to checkmate the enemy king. An important feature
of this pattern is that the queen defends the rook whilst at the same time trapping the enem
king “in a box.”

Lolli’s Mate
Definition:Lolli’s Mate is a common checkmate pattern performed by the cooperation
between a queen and pawn, typically against a castled king.
 Max Lange’s Mate
Definition : Max Lange’s Mate is a checkmate pattern that
demonstrates great coordination between a queen and bishop.

Mayet’s Mate
Definition: Mayet’s mate involves the use of a rook attacking the black king supported by a
bishop. It often comes about after the black king castles on its kingside in
a fianchetto position.
 Morphy’s Mate
Definition : Morphy's mate is a common method of checkmating. It was
named after Paul Morphy. It works by using the bishop to attack the
black king and a rook and Black's own pawn to confine it.In many respects it is very similar
to the Corner mate.

Opera Mate
Definition:The opera mate is a common method of checkmating. It works by attacking
an uncastled king on the back rank with a rook using a bishop to protect it. An enemy
pawn or a piece other than a knight is used to restrict the enemy king's movement
 Pillsbury’s Mate
Definition:Pillsbury’s Mate is a rook and bishop checkmate
pattern where the bishop controls the corner square next to a castled king. For this to
happen, the pawn shield in front of the king must be compromised.

Reti’s Mate
Definition:Reti’s Mate is a checkmate pattern that uses the X-Ray ability of a bishop (or
queen).
 Suffocation Mate
Definition:The Suffocation Mate is a checkmate pattern with a bishop
(or queen) and knight. The knight checks the king an the bishop suffocates him (with the
help of a few enemy pieces that further obstruct the king).

Swallow’s Tail Mate (Gueridon Mate)

Definition:Swallow’s Tail Mate is a checkmate pattern that visually resembles the
appearance of a swallow’s tail. It’s also known as Gueridon’s Checkmate. Its appearance
it’s very similar to the Epaulette Mate.
 Triangle Mate
Definition : The Triangle Mate, also known as the Fish Tail Mate, is a
queen and rook checkmate pattern that resembles the visual appearance
of a triangle (or a fish tail for that matter).

Vukovic Mate
Definition:The Vukovic Mate is a checkmate pattern with a rook, knight and any other
supporting piece. The pattern demonstrates a powerful coordination between the rook and
knight.
 Smothered Mate
Definition :Smothered mate is a common method of checkmating. It
occurs when a knight checkmates a king that is smothered
(surrounded) by his friendly pieces and he has nowhere to move nor is there any way to
capture the knight

Scholar’s Mate
Definition: In chess, Scholar's Mate is the checkmate achieved by the following moves, or
similar:1. e4 e5
2. Qh5 Nc6
3. Bc4 Nf6??
4. Qxf7#
Scholar’s mate is also referred to as four move checkmate.
 Légal’s Mate
Definition : In Légal's mate, two knights and a bishop coordinate to administer checkmate.
Alternatively, the mate may be delivered by a bishop on g5.