Chess lessons › Checkmate patterns
More knight and rook mates
Two mates where a knight helps a rook or queen: one along the edge, one right beside the king.
The idea
A knight helps a rook mate: along the edge, or right beside the king.
- The king’s own pawn fills g7, next to it.
- The knight covers g8 and g6.
- The rook checks along the h-file: mate.
In a game: Look for a knight near the enemy king, and a rook or queen that can check next to it.
How the lesson begins
In Anastasia’s mate, the king is on the edge of the board, and a rook or queen checks it along the edge. Of the squares next to the king off the edge, its own pawn fills one and a knight covers the rest.
Here the black king is on h7. Its pawn stands on g7, and the knight on e7 covers g8 and g6. Only the check is missing.
- 1. Rh4# The rook checks along the h-file, and the king has no square left.
Find the move
Black to move. Find Anastasia’s mate in two.
A hint
Check along the file the white king is on, and see what White must block with.
Show the answer
81... Ra1+ 82. Ra2 Rxa2#
Ra1+ checks along the a-file. White can only block with Ra2, and Rxa2# is mate. The pawn on b7 blocks its own king, the knight on d7 covers b8 and b6, and the rook covers the a-file.
In numbers
In the puzzle bank
536 puzzles in GreyChess’s bank practise it. Half of them are rated between 877 and 1,756.
The piece that makes the first move of the answer: knight 44%, rook 39%, queen 16%, bishop 1%, in puzzles from the Lichess puzzle database.