Most games between beginners and club players are not won by deep strategy. They are won by a checkmate one side did not see coming. The good news is that mates repeat: the same few patterns appear again and again. Learn to recognise them, and you will both find them in your games and stop walking into them.
The back-rank mate
A king behind its own unmoved pawns, on the back rank, has no square to escape to. A rook or queen landing on that rank gives mate.
Here White plays Rd8, and it is mate: the black king is shut in by its own pawns on f7, g7 and h7.
How to avoid it: at a quiet moment, give your king an escape square by moving one pawn in front of it, often h3 for White or h6 for Black. How to spot it: whenever the enemy king has no escape square, look at every check on the back rank. See the back-rank mate lesson.
The ladder mate
Two rooks, or a rook and a queen, take turns checking the king along rank after rank, pushing it to the edge until it is mated. It is the easiest mate to give with two heavy pieces, and the first one many children learn. See the ladder mate lesson.
The smothered mate
A knight gives check to a king that is surrounded by its own pieces, and so cannot move. It usually happens in the corner.
The black king on h8 is walled in by its own rook and pawns, and the knight on f7 gives check. There is no escape square and nothing can take the knight. A famous way to reach it uses a queen sacrifice that forces a piece onto the king's last free square. See the smothered mate lesson.
Mates with queen and bishop on f7 or f2
Early in the game, f7 (or f2 for White) is protected only by the king. A queen supported by a bishop on that square gives mate, as in the well-known "scholar's mate" against a careless opening. Knowing it is mainly about defending: when your opponent's queen and bishop both aim at f7, deal with it before it is too late.
Légal's mate
An old trap from the opening: a knight move seems to leave the queen to be taken, but taking it allows a quick mate with the minor pieces. It is a good lesson in asking why your opponent left something hanging. See Légal's mate.
Other patterns worth knowing
As you improve, add more names to your list: the epaulette mate, where a king is blocked on both sides by its own rooks, and the dovetail and swallow's tail mates with the queen. There is a lesson on all three.
How to learn them
- Start with mate in one. It trains you to look at every check first. Try finding mate in one.
- Solve many easy ones. Patterns are learned by repetition, not by reading. Fifty easy mates teach more than five hard ones.
- Look for checks in every position. Before each move in your games, ask: what checks do I have, and what checks does my opponent have?
GreyChess's training has checkmate basics, twenty-five classic mates in one and two to learn the patterns, and rated puzzles that can be chosen by theme, including checkmates. Solve a few each day, and these patterns will start to jump out at you in your own games.