But for some reason, the mating patterns with this duo are missing from most of the chess literature out there. The Queen-Knight pair has a reputation for being a dangerous attacking duo. The final position looks like a pair of scissors. The Bishop moves in to deliver the checkmate. Here, the Queen does a great job of covering most of the enemy King’s escape squares. Here's a simple example.Īnother mating pattern features the Bishop-Queen pair. The Bishop protects the Queen and controls an important square. This checkmate pattern combines the powers of a Queen and a Bishop and is named after a German chess player Max Lange. It’s a useful pattern know which will help you tremendously in a blitz game when you have little time to checkmate. This pattern is more of a ‘process’ than the ‘final checkmate position’.Ĭheck out the simple position below, and you’ll understand: The Railroad Mate looks like an unstoppable train of a Rook and a Queen, moving along a rail track to checkmate the enemy King. This mating pattern is a mix of the Kill box mate and the Triangle mate. Together, these 3 pieces form a triangle. The White Queen and Rook checkmate the Black monarch. This checkmate looks like a triangle formed by the Queen, the Rook, and the enemy King. The Rook delivers the checkmate while the Queen assists it. This checkmate pattern occurs when a Rook and Queen work together to checkmate the enemy King in a 3 by 3 box shape, from which the enemy King cannot escape. In this mating pattern, the King’s retreating squares are blocked by its own pieces, one standing horizontally & the other standing vertically. This mating pattern is named after Carlos Cozio, who published a study on the same in 1766. The mating pattern resembles a swallow’s tail. In this mating pattern, the King’s retreating squares are blocked by its own pieces, standing diagonally backward. The pieces on either side of the King block its escape squares and look like an epaulette on the King’s shoulders. In this pattern, the king is in check and has no safe retreating squares to its side. This checkmating pattern resembles an epaulette, a decorative shoulder piece worn on clothes, especially on a military uniform. Let’s go, starting with checkmating patterns with a lone Queen! 1. If you come up with better name suggestions, please share them in our forum – the link you’ll find at the end of the article.Īfter that, I’ll also share how you can further train and improve the skill of noticing these patterns and answer some of your common questions. I’ve added them here and named them too 🙂 Some of the patterns are common but are somehow not covered in most of the other articles, books, or learning resources. This is where having a sharp eye for checkmate patterns helps.Īs you get better at noticing such patterns, you’ll also improve your tactical and attacking skills!Īt the end of the article, we’ll come back to this beautiful puzzle and the mind-blowing move.īut first, I’ll introduce you to 37 important mating patterns, each with 1 practical example. If you notice all kinds of decoys, x-rays, and all other fancy tactical motifs, but you’re not very good with Mating Patterns, you’ll fail to find many chess tactics.Īnd the same way, you might start a brilliant attack, but fail to finish it, if your mating patterns knowledge isn’t very good. But as I said at the end of our Tactic Ninja course, the next step should be mastering the checkmating patterns! Why spotting checkmate patterns is important Recently, my friend, who is a National Master in chess, sent me the following puzzle from the Tactic Ninja course’s quiz:

Checkmate partners