Chess

Checkmate patterns, explained

A checkmate pattern is a named arrangement of pieces that ends a game, such as the back-rank mate, the Arabian mate or Anastasia’s mate. Below are 9 pattern guides, each with a plain-English definition, how to recognise the pattern, worked puzzles with solutions and FAQs.

Checkmate pattern guides

Why learn checkmate patterns?

Strong players do not calculate every mate from scratch. They recognise a shape they have seen before. Here are the patterns that keep turning up, what each one is, and a real puzzle to practise it on.

A checkmate pattern is a familiar arrangement of pieces that ends the game: the same few shapes recur across thousands of games. If you can name one when you see it, you find the winning move faster and you also spot when your own king is one move from the same fate. The names come from the players, places or shapes they are remembered for, such as Morphy, Pillsbury and the swallow’s tail.

The puzzles linked below come from our daily puzzle series. Each position comes from a real game in the open Lichess database and is engine-verified, and each post has the solution and a video that walks through it. To practise thousands more, RankUp Chess has a library of 5,000+ puzzles you can filter by difficulty and theme, offline and free to play.

Back-rank mate

A back-rank mate is a checkmate on the first or eighth rank, delivered by a rook or queen against a king that cannot step forward because its own pawns or pieces block the squares in front of it. Beginners fall for it most often, but the threat of it shapes play at every level.

How to spot it. The king is still on its back rank with its pawns unmoved in front of it. A castled king with the f-, g- and h-pawns at home is the classic target.

Full guide: Back-rank mate in chess, with worked puzzles and FAQs

Practise it:

Arabian mate

The Arabian mate is a checkmate in the corner of the board, delivered by a rook and a knight. The rook stands next to the king and gives the check. The knight, two squares away diagonally from the king, protects the rook and covers the other escape square. With the king on h8: rook on h7, knight on f6.

How to spot it. The pieces are one rook and one knight, against a king on a corner square.

Full guide: Arabian mate in chess, with worked puzzles and FAQs

Practise it:

Anastasia's mate

Anastasia's mate is a checkmate in which a knight and a rook (or queen) trap the king between the edge of the board and one of its own pieces. The knight covers the king's escape squares and the rook or queen checks along the a-file or h-file. It often follows a sacrifice that opens that file.

How to spot it. The pieces are a knight and a rook or queen. The king sits on the edge of the board, on the h-file or the a-file.

Full guide: Anastasia's mate in chess, with worked puzzles and FAQs

Practise it:

Epaulette mate

An epaulette mate is a checkmate in which two of the king's own pieces, most often rooks, stand on the squares beside it like epaulettes on a uniform's shoulders. With those two retreat squares blocked, a protected queen or rook checking from directly in front is mate. The classic picture is a king on its back rank between two rooks.

How to spot it. The king has its own pieces on both squares beside it, most often two rooks on the back rank.

Full guide: Epaulette mate in chess, with worked puzzles and FAQs

Practise it:

Swallow's tail mate

A swallow's tail mate is a checkmate in which a queen, protected by another piece, checks the king from the square next to it, in a straight line, while the king's own pieces block the two squares diagonally behind it. The pieces form a V, like the tail of a swallow. It is also called the guéridon mate.

How to spot it. A queen (sometimes a rook) can land on a square next to the king, in a straight line rather than diagonally, with a rook, bishop or other piece protecting it so the king cannot capture it.

Full guide: Swallow's tail mate in chess, with worked puzzles and FAQs

Practise it:

Opera mate

The opera mate is a checkmate in which a rook gives check and a bishop protects the rook, while a pawn or another piece blocks the king's remaining escape. It is named after the game Paul Morphy won in 1858 at the Paris opera against the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard, which ended with this pattern.

How to spot it. A rook that can give check along the back rank, and a bishop on a diagonal that points at the rook's square, so the king cannot simply capture the rook.

Full guide: Opera mate in chess, with worked puzzles and FAQs

Practise it:

Pillsbury's mate

Pillsbury's mate is a checkmate in which a rook gives the check while a bishop takes away the king's escape squares. It is named after the American master Harry Nelson Pillsbury and is the mirror of Morphy's mate, where the bishop gives the check and the rook confines the king.

How to spot it. A rook that can give check along the king's rank or file, and a bishop that already covers one of the king's escape squares.

Full guide: Pillsbury's mate in chess, with worked puzzles and FAQs

Practise it:

Morphy's mate

Morphy's mate is a checkmate in which a bishop gives the check while a rook, helped by one of the king's own pawns, confines the king. It is named after Paul Morphy and is the mirror of Pillsbury's mate. With a bishop on f6, a rook on the g-file shuts in a king on h8.

How to spot it. A bishop on the long diagonal pointing at the king's corner, such as f6 for a king on h8.

Full guide: Morphy's mate in chess, with worked puzzles and FAQs

Practise it:

Corner mate

A corner mate is a checkmate in which a rook or queen confines the king to a corner and a knight delivers the final check. The heavy piece takes away the squares beside the king, and because a knight's check cannot be blocked, the king has no answer. For a king on h8, the knight mates from f7 or g6.

How to spot it. The king is on or near a corner, with few squares to go to.

Full guide: Corner mate in chess, with worked puzzles and FAQs

Practise it:

Mate in two and mate in three

These are puzzle types rather than patterns: you are told the king can be mated in a set number of moves, and you have to find the forcing sequence. Look at every check, every capture and every threat before you settle on a move; a quiet move that removes the king’s last escape square is often the answer.

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Train these patterns offline

RankUp Chess is an offline chess academy for kids: 5,000+ puzzles, 10 AI strength levels and interactive lessons. It is free to play forever, with no ads and one optional one-time unlock.

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