Black should try to develop new pieces while making threats to the white queen. Once Black defends the checkmate, the white queen may find itself a target of attack. g6 are all reasonable moves that stop White's checkmate threat. How can Black defend against the four-move checkmate? There are three ways. If Black does not defend, White checkmates with 4.Qxf7# The four-move checkmate can be reached in a few different ways, but the basic pattern is that White opens by advancing 1.e2-e4, develops the bishop to c4 to attack the f7-pawn, and develops the queen to h5 (or f3). Almost all chess players has fallen for or delivered this checkmate at some point in their lives.īut it's nothing to be afraid of! If you know how to defend, White actually ends up out of position. This move is almost always preceded by some incredible sacrifice on White’s part, as that sacrifice opens up the diagonals and allows the bishops to find their positioning.The four-move checkmate (also known as scholar's mate) is by far the most common finish to a chess game. Ideally, Black would have a solid position from which to gauge appropriate reactions to White’s actions in three moves.Įnglish chess master Samuel Boden once employed a shocking sacrifice that cleared diagonal space, allowing him to put his opponent’s king in checkmate.īoden’s Mate is characterized by two bishops on crossing diagonals with the opponent’s king blocked in. When it works, you can provoke your opponent to make an extreme move that allows you to put the king in checkmate. In this move, Black moves all their pawns to the sixth rank in the opening and develops some other pieces to the seventh rank. The trap is named for Sire de Légal (1702-1792), a famous French chess player who was considered one of the best players in the world in the 1730s.Īlso called the Hippopotamus Defence, this pattern is used to describe multiple irregular chess openings. If Black accepts the sacrifice and moves to take the queen, a checkmate can occur with a follow-up move from a minor piece.
It is characterized by White sacrificing their queen. This common trap tends to come about within the first few opening moves. But for someone just starting in their exploration of chess, the Scholar’s Mate is an excellent four-move checkmate to have at hand. It’s relatively simple to defend against if you know what you’re doing. For this reason, the Scholar’s Mate is one of the fastest ways to bring about a checkmate.Ī skilled player will likely see this opening attack coming. Because the king only defends it, the pawn is a good target for an opening move.
This well-known pattern of victory is centred around attacking the weak f7 pawn. The Smothered Mate can occur at any point in the match if the opponent’s king becomes surrounded. These particular steps need not occur at the beginning of the game. If White’s next move is to free the queenside knight to c3, Black can quickly trap the king by moving its active knight to d4.
Black then releases its queenside knight, sliding to c6. White’s next move should be the kingside knight to e2. It also requires some valuable sacrifice on Black’s part to compel White to leave their king smothered.Ī simple illustration of the trick begins with White’s pawn moving from e2 to e4. This trick is less common than others, as more experienced players will rarely leave their king to be smothered by its surrounding pieces. This four-move checkmate trick mimics the Fool’s Mate in that it capitalizes on the inability of White’s king to escape, thereby “smothering” it and offering a quick victory. While the Fool’s Mate is more likely to happen among beginners to the game, it’s an important strategy to keep tucked away as it delivers a quick victory. Left with no means of defence, the king is vulnerable to checkmate when Black swings their queen to h4. The reason these two moves are so detrimental to White’s game is that they immediately weaken the position of the king. If their second move is a knight’s pawn to g4, then the Fool’s Mate is almost guaranteed. First, they must open the game with their kingside pawn moving to f3. The name comes from the opening mistake that White must make for this simple trick to work.Īs the first player to move, White must make two crucial errors. Sometimes called the two-move checkmate, the Fool’s Mate is the oldest and most popular strategy for a quick chess game.