You have to know some of the checkmates in order to know what you are looking for when playing a chess game. Some of these basic checkmates even have a name. By studying this kind of diagrams you may be able to avoid or to make use of similar positions during your own games.

King and Queen checkmates




King and Rook checkmates




Back rank checkmate

Many beginners often oversee this kind of Mate. You have to pay attention to this kind of mate opportunities when you run into this kind of positions. To prevent being mated like this it may be a good idea to have an escape square for the king.

Scholar’s mate

Scholar’s Mate is the most common opening trap a beginner falls into. In this checkmate both the Bishop and Queen attack the weak f7 pawn. This pawn is weak because, in the starting position, it is only protected by the King

Epaulette mate

In the epaulette mate the King is on its back rank and the Rooks of its own color on either side are blocking off the king’s escape route. But for the mating pattern it doens’t matter if other pieces then Rooks are involved, as long as they are of the same color.

Have you already seen the chess lesson about Checkmating with the Queen?