A checkmate can look a thousand different ways, but some patterns come back again and again. Once you have seen them a few times you recognize them at once, both when you can give mate yourself and when you are the one in danger. Here are some of the most important, by the names chess players know them by.
Smothered mate
In a smothered mate the king is completely hemmed in by its own pieces, and a knight gives check. Since the knight jumps, the check can't be blocked, and the king has nowhere to go. A smothered mate usually happens with the king in the corner.
A famous way to get there is a queen sacrifice on g8: the queen is sacrificed so that a rook is forced onto g8, where it shuts in its own king. That is a decoy. The combination is known as Philidor's legacy, after the eighteenth-century French master François-André Danican Philidor.
Back-rank mate
The back-rank mate turns up in countless games, at every level. The king is still behind its pawns after castling, a rook or a queen breaks in on the first or eighth rank, and the king can't escape.
The defense is simple if it comes in time: give the king air with a pawn move, for example h3 or h6. Read more about overloading, which often sets up the mate on the back rank.
The Arabian mate
A rook and a knight work together against a king in the corner. The rook gives check from the square next to it, and the knight protects the rook and takes the king's last escape square. The pattern is very old: it is described in Arabic chess manuscripts, from the time before the queen got her present powers and the rook and the knight were the strongest pieces.
Boden's mate
Two bishops on crossing diagonals mate a king that has castled queenside, usually with the king on c8 or c1 and its own pieces on the d-file blocking the way. The pattern is named after the nineteenth-century English player Samuel Boden.
More patterns to know
- Mate with king and queen, and with king and rook, is the first endgame technique to learn. See checkmate.
- Scholar's Mate and Fool's Mate, the quickest traps in the opening. See checkmate.
- Anastasia's mate: a knight and a rook or queen trap the king between the edge of the board and its own pawn.
- Légal's mate: an opening trap where White sacrifices the queen and mates with the minor pieces.
The best way to learn the patterns is to meet them many times. Try chess puzzles, where every mate you find makes the next one a little easier.
Frequently asked questions
What is a smothered mate?
A checkmate where the king is completely hemmed in by its own pieces and a knight gives check. Since the knight jumps, the check can't be blocked.
What is a back-rank mate?
A checkmate on the back rank: a rook or a queen gives check along the first or eighth rank, and the king can't escape because its own pawns are in the way.
How do you avoid a back-rank mate?
Give the king air in time, for example with a pawn move like h3 or h6, so that it has a square to go to.
Updated October 31, 2026