Learn › Tactics
7 Checkmate Patterns Every Chess Player Should Know
The back-rank mate, smothered mate, Anastasia's, Arabian and Boden's mates and more - the checkmate patterns that keep coming up, with boards to step through.
Strong players do not calculate every checkmate from scratch. They recognise it: the king is in a familiar shape, the pieces are in familiar places, and the finishing move comes to mind on its own. These shapes are called mating patterns, and a handful of them account for a large share of the checkmates in real games.
Here are seven you should know by heart.
1. The back-rank mate
A king that has castled sits behind its pawns. If those pawns never move, the king has no escape square - and a rook or queen landing on the back rank delivers mate.
Moves: 1. Re8#
The back-rank mate is the most common checkmate pattern in amateur games. The cure is simple: make luft ("air" in German) for your king - a pawn move such as h3 or h6 - before the back rank becomes weak.
Practise: back rank mate puzzles.
2. Smothered mate
A smothered mate is delivered by a knight, against a king completely surrounded by its own pieces. The king is suffocated by its own army.
The most famous version, sometimes called Philidor's Legacy, starts with a double check, forces the king into the corner, and sacrifices the queen so that the opponent's rook blocks the last square:
Moves: 1. Nh6+ Kh8 2. Qg8+ Rxg8 3. Nf7#
It happens in the opening too. In this Caro-Kann trap, Black's e-pawn cannot take the knight because it is pinned by the white queen:
Moves: 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Qe2 Ngf6 6. Nd6#
Practise: smothered mate puzzles.
3. Anastasia's mate
A knight and a rook (or queen) trap the king on the edge of the board. The knight covers the escape squares, and the rook mates along the edge file.
Moves: 1. Rh5#
The pattern is named after a novel, Anastasia und das Schachspiel (1803), by the German writer Wilhelm Heinse.
4. The Arabian mate
One of the oldest mating patterns known, recorded in Arabic chess manuscripts from over a thousand years ago. A rook and knight mate a king in the corner: the rook gives check right next to the king, and the knight protects it.
Moves: 1. Rh7#
5. Boden's mate
Two bishops on crossing diagonals mate a king that has castled queenside, usually after a queen sacrifice rips open its pawn cover.
Moves: 1. Qxc6+ bxc6 2. Ba6#
It is named after the English player Samuel Boden, who won a game with it in London in 1853.
6. Legal's mate
Not a single mating picture so much as a famous opening trap: a "pinned" knight moves anyway, giving up the queen for a forced mate with the minor pieces.
Moves: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bc4 Bg4 4. Nc3 g6 5. Nxe5 Bxd1 6. Bxf7+ Ke7 7. Nd5#
It is named after the 18th-century French player Sire de Légal, who taught Philidor.
7. The queen and king mate (the "kiss")
The simplest pattern of all: a queen right next to the enemy king, protected by another piece, often its own king. The king cannot capture the queen, and the queen covers every square around it.
Moves: 1. Qe7#
You need this pattern to win any endgame with a queen. See it step by step in how to checkmate with a queen or rook.
How to learn mating patterns
Reading about a pattern helps you recognise it once. Recognising it in the middle of a game, under time pressure, takes repetition - seeing it dozens of times until it is automatic. That is exactly what puzzles are for:
- Famous checkmate patterns - puzzles built around named mates
- Mate in 2 - the most useful length to practise
- Back rank and smothered mates on their own
Practise it: Famous checkmate patterns, Back rank mate puzzles, Smothered mate puzzles, Mate in 2 puzzles