Chess lessons › Checkmate patterns
The back-rank mate
A rook or queen mates a king shut in by its own pawns.
The idea
A rook or queen mates a king shut in by its own pawns.
- The king’s own pawns block the squares in front of it.
- The rook checks along the back rank.
- It covers the squares beside the king, and nothing can block: mate.
In a game: Look for a castled king behind unmoved pawns, with no piece guarding its back rank.
The lesson
A king that has castled and left its three pawns at home has no squares to run to. Its own pawns on f7, g7 and h7 are a wall, and the back rank behind them is a trap.
A rook or queen that reaches the back rank gives check. If nothing can block or capture it, the king cannot escape. That is the back-rank mate. Watch it happen.
- 1. Ra8# The rook checks along the eighth rank. The pawns block f7, g7 and h7, and the rook covers f8 and h8.
Find the move
White to move. The black king is shut in by its own pawns. Find the checkmate.
A hint
Look at the back rank, the row behind the pawns.
Show the answer
1. Rxd8#
Rxd8 takes the rook with check. The king cannot take the rook or step aside, so it is mate.
Find the move
The same pattern works with a queen. Find the mate.
A hint
The queen can reach the eighth rank in one move.
Show the answer
1. Qd8#
Qd8 gives check along the back rank. The pawns take away f7, g7 and h7, and the queen covers f8 and h8.
A question
Black has pushed the h-pawn to h6. Is Rd8 checkmate now?
Show the answer
No, the king escapes to h7.
Right. A square like h7 that a pawn move makes for the king is called luft. With luft there is no back-rank mate.
Find the move
Find the back-rank mate.
A hint
Look for a check along the back rank.
Show the answer
51... Qe1#
Qe1# is checkmate. The king is shut in by its own pawns.
Find the move
Find the back-rank mate.
A hint
Look for a check along the back rank.
Show the answer
29. Re8#
Re8# is checkmate. The king is shut in by its own pawns.
Find the move
Find the back-rank mate.
A hint
Look for a check along the back rank.
Show the answer
27. fxe8=Q#
fxe8=Q# is checkmate. The king is shut in by its own pawns.
Practise
Now some on your own. They get a little harder as you do well.
In the lesson, 5 rated puzzles on this theme come from the puzzle bank, chosen near your rating.
In numbers
In the puzzle bank
1,193 puzzles in GreyChess’s bank practise it. Half of them are rated between 555 and 1,514.
The piece that makes the first move of the answer: queen 54%, rook 38%, knight 4%, bishop 2%, in puzzles from the Lichess puzzle database.