How To Checkmate Archives - Chessentials https://chessentials.com/category/learn-chess/how-to-checkmate/ Chess blog about chess tactics, chess games and chess books Sun, 12 May 2019 13:59:02 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://chessentials.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/cropped-vjeks2-2-1-32x32.png How To Checkmate Archives - Chessentials https://chessentials.com/category/learn-chess/how-to-checkmate/ 32 32 Another 7 Checkmate Patterns Every Chess Player Should Know https://chessentials.com/another-7-checkmate-patterns-every-chess-player-should-know/ https://chessentials.com/another-7-checkmate-patterns-every-chess-player-should-know/#respond Sat, 11 May 2019 20:50:23 +0000 https://chessentials.com/?p=9543 This is a 2nd part of the post devoted to Checkmate Patterns Every Chess Player Should Know. The 1st part of the post is available here.  Mate nr. 9 A piece on f6 can be...

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]]> This is a 2nd part of the post devoted to Checkmate Patterns Every Chess Player Should Know.

The 1st part of the post is available here. 

Mate nr. 9

A piece on f6 can be no less dangerous. A checkmate pattern featuring the bishop on the long diagonal (usually on f6) is the one the authors of the book call mate nr. 9:

The advantage of the bishop over pawn is that it also controls the square g5:

Readers of this blog might recall the game Euwe – Loman, Rotterdam, 1923, where this checkmate pattern appeared. 1 Just in case, we provided another beautiful example:

Pillsbury’s mate

Harry Nelson Pillsbury was one of the strongest players from the end of the 19th century (the winner of Hastings tournament 1895). He discovered the following checkmate pattern:

Harry Nelson Pillsbury

The game in which this pattern could have appeared for the first time is Pillsbury – Lee, London, 1899:

Damiano’s mate

Pedro Damiano was a strong Portuguese player who lived from 1480 to 1544. He discovered another checkmate pattern which proves the strength of the pawn on the 6th rank – this time on g6:

Pedro Damiano playing against NN (Source: Wikipedia)

Apart from the pawn, a bishop on g6 can also turn out to be extremely powerful:

You may recall this checkmate appeared in the game between Botvinnik and Keres in Soviet Team Championship 1966. But the version with the bishop is more common in practical play:

The Arabian mate

The oldest pattern on the record and another one that fascinates players due to the limited material required to execute it is the „Arabian“ mate:

The following practical (and modern) example is very beautiful:

„Gueridon“ mate

Next, we will consider two checkmates with French names. The first one is the so-called Gueridon mate:

Gueridon’s mate is very common in numerous king’s pawn opening variations where things go badly for Black. For example, if Black make san early mistake in Philidor Defense, this might happen:

„Epaulette“ mate

Gueridon’s mate close cousin is Epaulette mate. Epaulette in French means „shoulder pad“. It will be soon clear why:

I don’t think this checkmate is THAT common in practice. But sometimes it can appear:

Bishop and Knight mate

It is well-known that the bishop and the knight can checkmate a lone king in the endgame. However, they also have considerable power in the middle game. Bishop and knight mate is another commonly encountered in practice, especially via the following mechanism:

There are many positions where Black has pawns on f7, g6 and h7, andWhite uses the threat of this checkmate to exploit the weak dark squares with the move Ng4. The following variation of the Ruy Lopez is a good example:

Once again – this is the second part of this article. The second part, titled 7 Checkmate Patterns Every Chess Player Should Know, is available here.

 

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]]> https://chessentials.com/another-7-checkmate-patterns-every-chess-player-should-know/feed/ 0 7 Checkmate Patterns Every Chess Player Should Know https://chessentials.com/checkmate-patterns/ https://chessentials.com/checkmate-patterns/#respond Sat, 11 May 2019 19:50:28 +0000 https://chessentials.com/?p=9540 Initially, this was imagined as a single post. Due to its length, we have decided to split it into two parts. The second part titled Another 7 Checkmate Patterns Every Chess Player Should Know can...

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]]> Initially, this was imagined as a single post. Due to its length, we have decided to split it into two parts.

The second part titled Another 7 Checkmate Patterns Every Chess Player Should Know can be found here.

A couple of days ago, as I was browsing through my Quora feed, I stumbled on the following question:

„I am a beginner chess player but find that I always struggle to find a checkmate position and the end game becomes long and tedious even when it should be easy to finish – how can I improve this?“

Guided by the rule that if one person asked this question, there are probably others, I realized beginners 1 often struggle with checkmating the opponent’s king in a middlegame.

I also realized there is a gap in the chess literature when it comes to this topic. From the top of my head, I could quote only two good books:2 The Art Of The Checkmate by Georges Renaud and Victor Kahn and Art Of Attack by Vladimir Vuković, who are entirely devoted to attacking and checkmating the king.

Considering our previous post, 10 Endgames Every Chess Player Should Know, got a good reception, the blogger and click-baiter inside of me saw another opportunity. Since I was lucky enough to stumble on The Art Of Checkmate in my youth, I learned the value of explaining and learning essential checkmate patterns. 3

(Fun fact – I just realized the same book has two names. The earlier version was titled The Art Of The Checkmate. The newer one, translated into algebraic notation, omitted „the“ and became The Art Of Checkmate)

That is how I got the idea to write a post on the topic. On the list below, you can find 14 checkmate patterns every chess player should know. Apart from the checkmate pattern itself, I have also provided an annotated sample game featuring it, so the reader can see the attacking moves that led to it and get an overall picture of how to apply the pattern in his own game.

Hope you will find it helpful!

Back rank (corridor) mate

Let’s start with an easy one. Back rank or corridor mate utilizes the fact that a castled king (on the kingside) is blocked by its own pawns. Any check down the 8th (1st) rank that can’t be blocked is, therefore, a checkmate.

A famous example is Capablanca’s game against Bernstein from Moscow Tournament 1914:

Of course, back rank mate rarely appears in its most primitive form. There are several variations on the theme:

If you think this is too naive, bear in mind that even World Champions are prone to becoming victims to this checkmate pattern:

Smothered (Lucena’s) mate

All chess players enjoy delivering the smothered mate. There is something aesthetically pleasing in deciding the outcome with a single piece.

Out of all variations of the smothered mate, the one discovered by Lolli in 1497 is most common:

Juan Ramirez Lucena (source: Wikipedia)

This pattern often appears in practice. Even the author of these lines delivered it several times (alas, mostly in blitz games). The following game by Paul Morphy is a good example because the checkmate is executed slightly differently:

Greco’s mate

Gioachino Greco is a famous Italian chess player from the beginning of the 16th century. He discovered numerous principles of the game (who doesn’t know his Bxh7 sacrifice).

Gioachino Greco( source Arves.org)

He was also the discoverer of the following checkmate pattern:

My favorite game featuring Greco’s mate is the game between Max Lange – the inventor of the Max Lange Attack – and Adolf Anderssen, one of the strongest player of the 19th century and the creator of the famous „Evergreen“ and „Immortal“ games.

Anastasia’s mate

The following checkmate pattern, in which a knight plays the crucial role, was named after a novel from the beginning of the 18th century:

There is no better example of this checkmate than the game between Milan Vidmar and Max Euwe from Karlsbad Tournament 1929.

Even Arya Stark would be proud of this last-minute save. 4

Boden’s mate

Every chess player knows about the power of two bishops. Their ultimate potential was discovered by Samuel Boden in the 19th century:

Samuel Boden (source: Chesshistory)

Boden’s mate is often utilized as a threat. But sometimes, it can appear on the board, usually following a major blunder:

Blackburne’s mate

James Henry Blackburne was a strong player from the 19th century, known for his attacking and romantic style. He was also the first to execute the following combination:

James Henry Blackburne (source: Wikipedia)

I already showed the stem game of the Blackburne’s mate in my review of the Art Of The Checkmate. Since I am very fond of that game (Jerome’s Gambit!), I am going to reproduce it here:

Lolli’s mate

We are taught that a pawn on the 6th rank in the vicinity of the king is an important asset.  Lolli’s checkmate patterns is the best evidence of its potential:

The following beautiful attacking game, played by Vera Menchik – the strongest female player from the first half of the 20th century – is a great example of Lolli’s mate in practice:

Vera Menchik (source: Pinterest)

Allow me to repeat once again in case you missed it – this is the first part of the article devoted to checkmate patterns. The second part, titled Another 7 Checkmate Patterns Every Chess Player Should Know, is available here.

 

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]]> https://chessentials.com/checkmate-patterns/feed/ 0 Fast checkmates https://chessentials.com/fast-checkmates/ https://chessentials.com/fast-checkmates/#respond Fri, 26 May 2017 16:43:58 +0000 https://chessentials.com/?p=1972 Introduction We human tend to get obsessed with the superlatives in any field of human activity. We are constantly trying to determine who is the biggest, the strongest, the most intelligent, the greatest ever, etc.....

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]]> Introduction

We human tend to get obsessed with the superlatives in any field of human activity.

We are constantly trying to determine who is the biggest, the strongest, the most intelligent, the greatest ever, etc..

Heck, our obsession went so far that a separate body was created that publishes an annual book which documents all the unnecessary achievements of the humanity.

Chess players are not an exception. For instance, when we are playing the game, we are searching for the best move; we are willingly entering lengthy discussions about the comparative greatness of Fischer and Kasparov, etc.

However, I would like to focus on answering one particular question that often fascinates the minds of beginners and novice players.

That question regards the least amounts of moves required to checkmate the adversary King right out of the opening.

Therefore, fast checkmates are the main theme of this article. And we are going to start with the fastest of them all – The two move checkmate or the Fool’s mate.

The two move checkmate – The Fool’s mate

Only the player playing the White pieces can become a  victim of the two move checkmate.

Considering that such a checkmate arises only after a terrible play on White’s part, this checkmate is also known as the Fool’s mate.

An example game featuring the Fool’s mate is shown below.

We can observe that there are several conditions that need to be for the Fool’s mate to happen:

  • White’s g pawn has to be on g4, in order not to be able to block the check of the Black Queen.
  • White’s f pawn has to be on f3 or f4, in order for the e1-h4 diagonal to be clear.
  • White’s king has to be hemmed in by his own pieces. For instance, if there was no queen or d1 or pawn d2, there would be no checkmate as the king would be able to flee via one of those squares.

Naturally, White’s moves with the f and the g pawn are both terrible.

Therefore, it is fully justified to start singing to your opponent in the style of Amy Lee if you ever deliver the Fool’s mate over the board.

The three move checkmate – The Fool’s mate reversed

Compared to the two move checkmate, that is unique, there are multiple ways of checkmating the enemy king in three moves.

In this part of the article, we will focus on the basic instance, which is basically the Fool’s mate reversed.

(Other types of various three move checkmates are covered in a later part of this article)

An example game featuring the three move checkmate is shown below.

Similarities between the two move checkmate and the three move checkmate are quite obvious.

The only main difference is that White has to lose a tempo and wait for Black to weaken himself along the e8-h5 diagonal.

But if you allow yourself to be checkmated in this fashion, you still deserve to be called a Fool!

chess_dummies

We have already pointed out that only complete beginners will move their f and g pawns early in the opening.

Considering that there is a very low probability of encountering the Fool’s mate over the board, one might wonder if there is any point of getting familiar with it, whatsoever.

Well, if there is one thing one should remember from the example games above, that is the danger of weakening the h4-e1 (h5-e8) diagonal too early in the game.

Whenever you are contemplating about pushing your g and f pawns, you should make sure that your king isn’t going to suffer as a consequence.

Because even if punishment doesn’t come as quickly as in the Fool’s mate, you still might fall into a tactical trap and lose the game relatively quickly.

The following game should illustrate my point.

The four move checkmate – The Scholar’s mate

Another fast checkmate that is encountered rather often in the practice is the four move checkmate.

The f7(f2) is generally recognised as the weakest point in the pawn structure in the opening because the King is the only piece defending it.

Four move checkmate occurs when the White Queen, supported by the light squared bishop, checkmates the Black king precisely on the f7 square.

Due to its educational value (this pattern is often used to teach the beginners the basic combination elements) the four move checkmate is also widely known as the Scholar’s mate. 

An example game featuring the Scholar’s mate is given below.

Compared to the Fool’s mate, the Scholar’s mate is more often encountered in practice. Many beginners are attracted to the idea of a quick win and they try to catch their opponent of the guard with the Parham opening.

And not only beginners. The 2 Qh5!? was tried against arguably the greatest player ever, Garry Kasparov.

Apart from that, a top 10 player Hikaru Nakamura also played the White side of that opening.

These two games, however, demonstrate the drawbacks of the early queen sortie.

Once Black has defended against the immediate threats, he can gain time by harassing the White lady and end up in a superior position.

For this reason, a word of caution is required. Although you might win some games with the help of the Scholar’s mate, you are relying on a mistake by your opponent, which is hard an advisable strategy in chess.

Therefore, don’t become fixated on the Scholar’s mate. Any experienced player will be glad to take advantage of your suboptimal opening play.

A personal note

I would like to conclude this article with two anecdotes connected with fast checkmates.

I have been a victim of a couple of three move checkmates myself. However, as will soon become apparent, it was never my fault (I am pretty good in excuses, aren’t I?).

The first instance it happened was a friendly game against a family member, who tried the above-mentioned Parham attack against me:

After this debacle, one would expect that I have learnt the lesson and that I would never fall for something similar.

However, many years after the game above, I was playing in the Split open 2013 tournament. 

There I have spent quite some time playing blitz against IM Leon Livaić (who was “only” a 2050 Candidate Master at a time).

However, already then I got crushed in blitz quite badly. Out of desperation, I started playing some nonsense openings and simply hope for the miracle.

Then the following game happened:

” Don’t trust International Masters even when they are suggesting the theory.”

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]]> https://chessentials.com/fast-checkmates/feed/ 0 How to mate with bishop and knight https://chessentials.com/bishop-knight-checkmate/ https://chessentials.com/bishop-knight-checkmate/#respond Sun, 18 Dec 2016 22:29:50 +0000 https://chessentials.com/?p=778 INTRODUCTION Finally we have arrived to the most difficult “elementary” checkmate – The bishop and knight checkmate. First of all I would like to enter a short theoretical discussion. There is much to be said about the...

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]]> INTRODUCTION

Finally we have arrived to the most difficult “elementary” checkmate – The bishop and knight checkmate.

First of all I would like to enter a short theoretical discussion. There is much to be said about the point of learning this checkmate in great detail.

Because the main argument against bothering yourself with this relatively complicated mechanicsm is the probability of its occurence over the board.

I can talk from my experience. During the course of the last 6 years I have played around 150 tournament games.

Not even once was I even close to reaching the afore mentioned endgame. To be honest, that is pretty lucky for me, since I am not at all certain that I have fully mastered the checkmate.

And the fact that I am writing a post about the very same checkmate merely reminds me of a joke about the university professor, who complains to his colleague about  his students:

“Imagine, I explain them the theorem for the first time, and nothing.

I explain the theorem for the second time, and still nothing.

I explain the theorem for the third time. Even I finally understand it, but they once again nothing..”

quantum-physics-lecture

Therefore, a very good question is whether one should focus on other areas of chess instead of the specific checkmate that is very unlikely to appear over the board.

Too be honest, I don’t have a very convincing answer against that. It would make me quite a hypocrite to advocate learning this checkmate as a must, when I have gone for so many years without bothering to do it.

And also, there were quite stronger players who embarassed themselves in this area of the chess game. Check this video of World Chess Champion Anna Ushenina, or this game by a strong grandmaster Vladimir Epishin, for instance.

I think that not learning the bishop and knight checkmate isn’t something I should be very proud of. I think that learning the bishop and knight checkmate should be considered the basic chess culture.

It was quite lucky that I have never had the opportunity to exercise it over the board, because it would be quite shameful to lose the half point because of your own chess incompetence.

Additionaly, there is an argument that learning the bishop and knight checkmate deepens the understanding of the coordination of these two minor pieces. And that can be very important factor in the middlegame.

To sum up, there are both PRO ET CONTRA arguments considering the bishop and knight checkmate. But my opinion is that it can’t do much harm to study it, and it also shouldn’t consume much time.

In the remainder of the post we will initially consider the basic mating picture. Then we will introduce the typical position with the so called W MANEOVRE, which is crucial in performing the checkmate. Finally, an example of the whole checkmate consisting of forcing the black king in the corner will be presented.

BASIC MATING PICTURE

The most important thing to remember about the bishop and knight checkmate is that it typically occurs with the black king in the corner whose colour is THE SAME TO THE COLOUR of the white bishop. (Please note that the Black will once again be the weaker side of this checkmate).

Some typical mating pictures are shown on the diagrams below:

It is important to note that these aren’t the only possible mating pictures. For instance, there is also the possibility of mating the king on the edge of the board, as depicted on the diagram below:

However, considering that Black plays the optimal defensive moves, mating the king in the right corner is the only way of doing so. A big mistake by black is neccessary in order to allow the other form of the bishop and knight checkmate.

W MANEOVRE

Having in mind the things said above, Black’s perfect defence involves running in the CORNER OF THE OPPOSITE COLOUR OF THE WHITE BISHOP. 

White’s aim is to force the king into the adjacent corner without allowing the king to escape. The key of doing that is the so called W maneovre.

To get the better idea behind the maneovre (and the name behind it), please consider the following diagram:

THE WHOLE CHECKMATE

{Please consider the following starting position}

CONCLUSION

Phew… This was very lenghty and hard. Still, I hope this post has given you idea behind performing this complex checkmate, or at least clarified that it is not THAT DIFFICULT.

The only thing I can advise from this point onwards is … PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.

On this link, you can practice the checkmate against the chess computer.

Any comments, suggestions and improvements are welcomed very much.

Good luck 🙂

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]]> https://chessentials.com/bishop-knight-checkmate/feed/ 0 How to mate with two bishops https://chessentials.com/two-bishops-checkmate/ https://chessentials.com/two-bishops-checkmate/#respond Mon, 05 Dec 2016 22:58:44 +0000 https://chessentials.com/?p=509 INTRODUCTION After learning elementary queen and rook checkmates it is time to take another “small step” for a chessplayer and learn another elementary mate. If you recall the basic chess rules, the next piece on...

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]]> INTRODUCTION

After learning elementary queen and rook checkmates it is time to take another “small step” for a chessplayer and learn another elementary mate.

If you recall the basic chess rules, the next piece on the relative strength scale  is the bishop. However, from the bishop onwards, a single piece can’t deliver the elementary checkmate to the bare opponent’s king.

Therefore, as a next elementary mate we will study the typical mate of the two bishops, a mate that every chess player should be familiar with.

And I only wish to add that it is very useful that “double figures” mates start with the bishops, instead of the rooks.

Because it would be much harder for everyone to avoid the rookie mistake and call the rook “THE TOWER” instead.

46d75f0571d40f8859922e9185d71807
Just in case you were wondering what the hell I was blabbling about above

MATING PICTURE

First of all, we shall follow the familiar track and get acquainted with the mating picture. Similarly to the other elementary mates, the mate itself takes place either at the edge, or at the corner of the board. Some of the possible mating pictures are demonstrated on the diagram below (Hint: Note that once again White will be the mating side throughout the whole post)

Here it is important to note that White’s light squared bishop controls all the light squares around the Black king, while the dark squared bishop controls all the dark squares. I guess you were very surprised by this fact.

But I am emphasizing this nevertheless, since the elementary mating mechanicsm will consist of two bishops supplementing each other.

Naturally, a careless player can rather easily spoil a game, which in bishop checkmate context means stalemate. Since both bishops operate on only one diagonal, it is much harder to miss that the opponent’s king will be stalemated. But still, it is worth reminding ourselves of some possible stalemate pictures, in order not to lule our vigilance too much.

After covering the basic DO’S and DONT’S in terms of mating pictures, we can finally start learning the mating mechanicsm. In contrast to the queen and rook checkmates, we will examine only one basic mechanicsm, since there is no “dumber” or “smarter” way of executing the mate.

MATING MECHANISM

Let us start “deus ex machina”..uhm..I mean “in medias res”.. and consider the initial not-very-likely-to-meet-over-the-board position.

 

Conclusion

Hopefully, after reading this it will be easier to perform the bishops checkmate once you encounter it over the board.

Since this example was meant to be educational, it hasn’t followed the fastest way towards the goal. Once you get some experience, you can always consult the Nalimov Tablebase tool, a specified computer engine that gives the final evaluation of the endgame position that containes up to 6 pieces on the board.

From the practical point of view, it is worth remembering the following:

  • The example started from the hardest possible starting position, and still the sub-optimal mate was performed in only 24 moves, which is way below the maximum allowed 50 moves which player has according to the rules to perform the mate.

That concludes this post. If you ever get confused during the mating proces, just remember that bishops have to be in synergy.

jin_jang

 

 

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]]> https://chessentials.com/two-bishops-checkmate/feed/ 0 How to mate with rook https://chessentials.com/rook-checkmate/ https://chessentials.com/rook-checkmate/#respond Thu, 24 Nov 2016 18:46:17 +0000 https://chessentials.com/?p=473  INTRODUCTION In the prevous post we have learned the elementary queen checkmate. Therefore, it is time to move one step forward. Since the rook is the second strongest piece, (remember basic chess rules), learning the rook...

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]]>  INTRODUCTION

In the prevous post we have learned the elementary queen checkmate. Therefore, it is time to move one step forward. Since the rook is the second strongest piece, (remember basic chess rules), learning the rook checkmate next  is  quite logical.

 MATING PICTURE

First of all, in order to understand the mating mechanicsm, it is important to know the basic mating picture. Because knowing which position  you are aiming for might make your moves more purposeful.

Despite the fact that “it’s all about the hunt, not about the kill”. Since in chess one is very fond of killing the enemy king as fast as possible.

its-not-about-destination-its-about-the-jounrey
Another version of “hunt – kill” phrase that has no relation to chess whatsoever

As shown by diagrams below, the rook checkmate mating picture is the same as a certain variation of the queen checkmate. The basic condition stays the same. The mating takes place either in the corner or on the edge of the board.

It is important to note that it is also possible to stalemate the opponent, if one is not careful enough.  Since there is only one possible stalemate picture with the king on the edge of the board, it is not so hard to avoid it.

Naturally, due the to rook’s limited mobility compared to the queen, there are less possible mating pictures.  Nevertheless, due to his two-direction movement, the mating process is still relatively easy.

In the further course of this post two different mating mechanicsm will be demonstrated.

Initially, we will consider the slower method, because it is more “user – friendly.” Afterwards, we will demonstrate another technique, which is somewhat faster and which might be especially relevant while playing blitz games over the internet.

MATING MECHANISM #1

The first mating mechanicsm is rather plain simple. The basic idea is to repeat the mating picture along the files or ranks of the board. Every time White (note again that White will be the stronger side) “mates”, the Black king is forced back untill finally he is forced to the edge of the board.

Probably the reader will get a better visualisation of the everything written above if we consider the following diagram:

Naturally, the demonstrated mechanicsm is rather painful and hopefully you won’t be “brute forcing” the checkmate like this in your own games.

Because there is much more efficient way of mating that includes simultaneous action by king and rook.

MATING MECHANISM #2

The second proposed mechanicsm eliminated the need of the “long” rook moves to the other side of the board. Instead, White uses his king to support his rook when it is attacked, and therefore eliminates many superfluous moves.

Let us take another look at the starting position.

If you have any questions, suggestions or comments, feel free to use the comment section below, or send me an email. 🙂

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