Chess lessons › Checkmate patterns
Mates with two bishops
Boden’s mate and the double-bishop mate: diagonals that work together.
The idea
Bishops on crossing diagonals mate a king hemmed in by its own pieces.
- One bishop takes away the marked squares beside the king.
- The other bishop checks along the other diagonal.
- The king’s own rook and pawn fill the last squares: mate.
In a game: Look for a king boxed in by its own pieces, with open diagonals crossing beside it.
How the lesson begins
Two bishops can mate a king that is hemmed in by its own pieces. In Boden’s mate the bishops attack along two diagonals that criss-cross next to the king. Black’s king on c8 has its own rook on d8 and pawn on d7 beside it, and the bishop on f4 already takes away b8 and c7.
- 1. Ba6# The second bishop checks along a6, b7, c8 and covers b7. The first bishop covers b8 and c7. The king’s own rook and pawn block d8 and d7.
Find the move
Find the checkmate. Two bishops work together.
A hint
Look for a bishop check that a second bishop supports.
Show the answer
28... Bg3#
Bg3# is mate. One bishop gives check and the other takes squares away from the king.
In numbers
In the puzzle bank
489 puzzles in GreyChess’s bank practise it. Half of them are rated between 800 and 1,618.
The piece that makes the first move of the answer: bishop 51%, queen 36%, rook 11%, knight 1%, in puzzles from the Lichess puzzle database.