Attack patterns in chess

Brief description of what they are

In chess there are many types of game patterns and in each of the phases of the
game we will find them. If you still don't know what they consist of, it is best to read
the chess patterns .

Attack patterns are configurations of the pieces that can help us find a combination
that will quickly lead us to win the game.

These types of patterns appear mainly in the middle game, or also in the last
phase of the opening . These phases are generally the most difficult to play,
especially for beginner players, because we have to develop our plans, and simply
following the general principles of chess is not enough.

Advantages of knowing attack patterns

There are many advantages of knowing them. Almost infinite. Name the ones that
seem most important to us:

 They allow you to quickly identify positions where tactical options exist
 Finalize technically won positions
 Develop attacks from learned models
 Anticipate possible rival attacks
 Understand the tactical relationships between pieces
 Incorporate typical sacrifices in offensive positions
 Develop tactical intuition
 Gain confidence in finishing positions

Who are attack patterns for?

Any player can use them. You don't need to be an expert or even know a lot of
chess. It is true that the higher your level, the easier you will have to learn new
patterns, the more memory you will have, and you will be able to learn more complex
patterns.

Grandmaster Sandro Mareco, one of our teachers. He is among the 80 people in the
world who know the most about patterns.

Typology
Introduction
As I explained, the patterns are practically infinite. However, in the attack patterns
course of our online academy, we have structured them following some attack
premises that seem to us to be the most important to get started.

I explain below what they are:

Elementary Finishing
A shot in chess is the same as in soccer, it is a position in which you have to score a
goal, otherwise it is something like a resounding failure!

They are mates in attack positions that have gone down in history and that consist of
controlling the enemy king's escape squares. One of these patterns is the Anastasia
Mate.

Attacks with absence of the f-pawn

The absence of the f-pawn conditions the safety of the king . Because it leaves open
a line of attack for the enemy pieces. It is a type of pattern that plays with the activity
of the pieces, and that takes into account a weakness that usually appears: the
weakness of the h7 pawn.

Below I show you a class from our course on attack patterns so that you understand
how important they are, and above all how useful:

Attacks based on tower sacrifices

Rook sacrifices are usually produced with two objectives : to open lines and to place
the rival king on a square that interests us.

An example of this type of pattern is the one that occurs with the absence of the h-
pawn. Look at the following diagram, would you be able to win the game with white?
(leave me your comments with your solution).
Attacks based on bishop sacrifices
Bishop sacrifices are generally more complex than rook sacrifices, as the bishop has a
less natural movement for the human brain. Furthermore, these types of sacrifices

Deflection-based attacks
Deflection in chess is a fundamental technique that aims to bring one of our
opponent's pieces to a square that is ideal for our interests. There are many and very
complex attack patterns based on this technique.

Attacks based on horse sacrifices

The horse jumps, we already know! That is why many of their sacrifices are very
unpredictable. Furthermore, they can be supported by additional sacrifices such as
rook or bishop sacrifices.

Look at the following position, it is easy to finish it if we know the attack pattern of
the knight on the f7 pawn.
 The whites play and win.

Attacks based on lines and geometric motifs

The pieces in chess are articulated following a logic. This logic has many aspects, one
of them is geometric. Which consists of the relationships of the lines that the
pieces trace in a diagonal, horizontal or vertical direction.

Attacks based on rook and knight coordination

The less similar the movements of the pieces are, the better their coordination usually
is. The coordination of the knight with the rook is usually good for this reason.

Greek or Greco attack

This type of attack, called Greek Gift Sacrifice in English, is very common in
practice, that is why we have organized it in its own category, since it is important to
know it from both a defensive and offensive point of view.

This type of pattern occurs when the following conditions are met:

 Absence of the f6 knight

 White can take the queen to h5 or d3
 The queen has support in the attack, such as:
o The knight can jump to g5 without being eaten by a bishop
o The rook can reach h3 (or similar).
o Black cannot cover h7 with…Bf5 or…Nd7-f6
 Game (analysis) Anand – Svidler. Now Black
loses with Bxh7 followed by Ng5

Advantages of learning patterns for

children
There are countless studies on chess and its implications in children's education. In
these studies, the main conclusions are that chess promotes academic performance,
especially problem solving, increases memory, concentration, IQ test scores,
critical thinking, and develops vision and spatial skills and the ability to identify
patterns (Liptrap, 1998; Dauvergne, 2000 Thompson, 2003; Stefurak, 2003; Brenda,
2003).

Much of these advantages are due precisely because our brain develops new
connections when it learns these attack patterns (among others).

Books we recommend to learn attack

patterns
Beginners:
Chess tactics for children (it doesn't matter if you're not a child).

How to beat your dad at chess.

Intermediates:
Measure your chess strength volume 1.

Advanced:
Measure your chess strength vol. 3 (very high level)

Chess patterns: What are they and how

do they help you play better?

Why is one chess player an average club player and another a master? There are
many skills that will make you a master, but one of the most important is pattern
recognition .

In an average position in the middlegame there are around 40-50 legal moves. A
beginner will examine the position and analyze the legal moves one by one (the
lower his level of play, the greater the number of moves he will consider), perhaps
ignoring the most important ones. Until he distinguishes the legal plays from the
illegal ones and then he will choose between the legal ones without too much criteria.

An intermediate player will look at the position and quickly see the legal moves
without any problems, but will have some difficulty determining which moves
deserve more consideration and which do not. A master, on the other hand, will
examine the position, see all the legal moves without even thinking about them,
decide quickly which is the best, almost instinctively , and begin examining the most
promising continuations.

How is it possible?

Recommended course: Positional patterns based on structures.

Pattern recognition
On the path to chess mastery, a player sees and studies many different types of
positions. Every time a teacher finds a new position, previous experience helps him or
her find the right path in the new position. This is pattern recognition .

Pattern recognition , in computer science for example, deals with the analysis of the
identity of input data, such as speech, images or a stream of text, by recognizing and
delineating the patterns it contains and their relationships.

Stages in pattern recognition may involve measuring the object to identify

distinctive attributes, extracting features for defining attributes, and comparing it
to known patterns to determine a match or mismatch. Pattern recognition has wide
application in astronomy, medicine, robotics and satellite remote sensing. So it is not
unique to chess and much less to specific disciplines.

Related article: Attack patterns in chess

Pattern recognition in the human mind

Pattern recognition is a skill of how people identify objects in their environment ,

which is what we do all the time in our daily lives. So it's not just something linked to
chess, it's about our psychology as people.

For example, you can recognize your teachers, friends and also what "objects" you
can eat or not. Everything in the world has its own pattern. Our superiority over
computers as pattern recognizers has the practical advantage that pattern recognition
can be used, for example, to tell whether a person or a computer is trying to
access the Internet . The famous captcha characters that they ask us for when we try
to register on a website.

There are many studies and models that have attempted to address such a complex
matter, such as, for example, the Sperling model or the Rumelhart Model .

The Sperling Model

Sperling was the first person to fully investigate the properties of visual short-term
memory.

Pattern recognition

Sperling conducted a series of experiments to investigate the limits of the span of

apprehension. If a human observer is presented very briefly with a matrix of
three rows of four letters each, it is normal for them to be able to report only
about four of the total 12 letters in the matrix (average of 4.5 letters, using 50 ms
exposures). .

At The Zugzwang Members , our Chess Academy, we work a lot on this aspect and
we want to show you how with one of the classes we currently have in our Academy
in which we talk about typical mistakes of amateur players .

Do you dare to carry out a challenge so that you understand how

pattern recognition works in chess?

It is a position that we have extracted from lesson 2 of our course on amateur player
errors that has a lot to do with pattern recognition taught by Grand Master Herminio
Herraiz. It is a position that our intermediate level students mostly solve.
 White plays how
you would play

As you see, there are multiple legal plays and multiple plays that may seem “good.”
An experienced player will very easily find the best solution .

What plays are possible?

For example, giving check with Qb5, threatening the rook with our strong pawn with
h7, taking our bishop to d4... We are not saying that these are good moves, they are
simply moves that are more than just legal moves. For example, Qc3 would be a legal
move, but it would make no sense because we would immediately lose our queen.

As you will see in the video, we are not only about which move is best in this specific
position but also how to integrate a fundamental chess concept such as which pieces
we should change, with the specific patterns that occur from the perspective of
structure and of the value of the pieces that we can later reuse in our chess games.

That's the trick!

10 Essential Mate Patterns

Study these patterns, understand why they work , and start looking for them while you
play!

Below, we present a summary of the video, so you can review what you have learned.

To better organize the mating patterns, we will only talk about the most common ones
against the king in the center. And we will separate them into 3 categories : the weak
pawn of f7, the weak diagonal of h5-e8 and others.

The Weak Pawn on f7

At the start of the game, White's f7-pawn (or White's f2-pawn) is the weakest point in
Black's position. He is a pawn close to the king and his majesty is the only one who
defends him. That is why attacking this pawn is the easiest way to mate in the
opening.

There are 4 typical mating patterns on this poor pawn:

 The Shepherd Checkmate : The most

common mate among beginners. The pawn on f7 is so weak that a coordinated
attack by the bishop and queen can be deadly. The classic 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5
3.Qh5 Nc6 4.Qxf7# is well known. But what do you think of the following
position? Can black defend the f7 point? (solution in the video)

 The Legal Mate : This is probably the most spectacular mate in this section.
After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4 h6? 4.Nc3 Bg4? Black loses material with
5.Nxe5! After 5…dxe5 6.Qxg4 white gains a pawn. But even worse is 5…
Bxd1? , which allows checkmate with 6.Bxf7+ Ke7 7.Nd5# . Wonderful
coordination of pieces in the center of the board.
  Bxf7+ : A very common combination,
benefiting from the fact that the Bg4 is not well defended. It is similar to the
Legal mate, but in the reverse order. For example, in the second diagram
white plays and wins. (solution in the video)

 Nxe5 : Sometimes, the same trick as in the Legal checkmate can be used, but
with another idea in mind. With a knight on e5, a check with Bb5 can be a
winner, as it is difficult to interpose a piece.

The Weak Diagonal from h5-e8

The weak diagonal of h5-e8 is closely related to the previous topic. If this line opens,
then a check can be fatal, since there are no pieces that can cover the f7 or g6 squares.

 The Fool's Mate : I'm pretty sure that no one will let you mate with 1.f3 e5
2.g4 Qh4# in a game, but knowing the importance of this diagonal will give
you many winning ideas if the opposing king didn't castle quickly. Even GM
Nakamura forgot about this key tactical element!

 Alekhine's Mate : The fourth World Champion was a tactical monster. When
he gave simuls, he used to display all his tactical skill to win miniatures
against his poor amateur rivals. In one of them, he used a queen sacrifice to
weaken the h5-e8 diagonal and create a nice variation of Fool's Mate. A great
example of how matte patterns can help us find combinations more easily.
  Mate de la Coz : Also known as Lucena's
mate, this impressive queen sacrifice has the power to make any chess player
happy. If you think that this tactic has nothing to do with this topic, then you
should see one of the first examples of this combination, played by the great
Greco in 1620 (!). In the right position, black plays and wins. (solution in the
video)

Others

There are many other mating patterns that are important to know in order to destroy
the opponent's king position in the center. But I want to focus on two spectacular
dunks that have big names linked to them.

 Morphy's Mate : Pablo Morphy is one of those players that is essential to

know, especially for beginners. Its didactic game will teach you a lot about the
development of the pieces and the attack. In his most famous game, called the
Opera Game , he ended the match with an elegant queen sacrifice and a rook
mate. If you've never seen this game before, then you have to watch the video!

 Reti's Mate : Another important miniature,

this time by Ricardo Reti, with another queen sacrifice. Reti simply destroyed
one of the best players of the time. Do you want to win like him? Then you
have to look for the winning move in the following diagram. White plays!
(again, the solution in the video)
Yes, your accounts are well done. I only presented you 9 matte patterns. The tenth is
for you.

Today I bring you this article about positional assessment. It is part of the classes I
have with my students. This part is an introduction without the games related to the
class, but I think it can still help you have a better idea of what positional assessment
is and how it works. I hope you enjoy it.

Positional Assessment

Positional assessment is one of the most important elements of the game of

Chess. In my opinion, one of the ones that gives the most problems to the
new generations of chess. Somehow, access to an increasing amount of
information every day, mainly in the field of openings, has meant that this
aspect, which is the soul of the game of chess, has been relegated in the
training of younger players.
In this regard, I recommend you see the excellent article by Héctor Leiva
http://pasionajedrez.blogspot.com/2012/04/abordando-el-tema-de-los-
jugadores.html

Chess is basically a strategy game, where different long- and short-term

elements must be understood and balanced in the analysis process in order
to find the right path.

“For less advanced players, the game is simply a succession of tactical

episodes, often unrelated to each other. Games seem to be won or lost
almost by chance, for example by “making a bad move” that loses material.
As the game progresses, however, players gain such control that the most
serious errors disappear. From then on, the game is often defined in favor of
whoever has a better understanding of how to play a certain position, a
greater strategic understanding.
In general, it can be said that tactics are the most important thing to be a
strong player, since calculating specific variations without excessive errors is
essential to be able to play at a high level. However, the vast majority of
chess positions are so complicated that simple calculation is not enough to
guide oneself and therefore, on many occasions one must resort to
evaluating the existing options using a global vision of how the game is going
to develop in the middle. long term. Normally a player who is very strong
strategically and weaker tactically will frequently use his intuition in his
decisions. Very advanced players are capable of developing chess intuition
that allows them to quickly discard erroneous moves without hardly any
calculations.
Therefore, a great player will be one who obtains a good balance between
tactics and strategy. Still, each player has strengths and weaknesses. Even
among the world champions, we can point out some who had, above all, a
very accurate and original positional vision (José Raúl Capablanca,
Alexander Alekhine, Mikhail Botvinnik, Tigran Petrosian, Anatoly Karpov) and
those who stood out above all for their extraordinary tactical ability (Emanuel
Lasker, Alexander Alekhine, Mikhail Tal). (Wikipedia)”

When evaluating a position it is very important not only to determine whether I

am slightly better or worse, but also whether I am comfortable with the
position (I am might even be more important than determining a slight
advantage. Since chess is a practical game, if my opponent has a somewhat
superior position, based for example on material superiority, but instead has a
position that is very difficult for him to play, although from a pure point of view
his position is superior from a From a practical point of view, the advantage
would be on our side. This shows us the importance of evaluating the position
and also understanding its nature and the psychological nature of the fight)

The first step in position assessment is linked to pattern recognition. The

strongest players are very familiar with a series of typical patterns that
reinforce and facilitate their decision-making process. This knowledge of
patterns usually eventually becomes what we know as chess intuition. The
player basically has a clear notion of how to proceed in a certain position
without a great need for logical analysis to reach a definitive conclusion. The
brain basically sees a series of patterns and fills in the holes allowing for
accurate evaluation.
When we talk about weaker players this is usually the problem they face.
They often know a lot about general strategy but very little about the specific
positions they play. Their lack of “stored patterns” of the specific positions
they play in their memory. It makes it harder for them to make decisions.
A few days ago I saw 3 different players with a position very similar to the
following
In all three games the maneuver g6-Ne6-Ng7-Bf5 was possible. This is not
the only possible plan in this position, however, it struck me that none of them
knew or had at least studied this type of idea on some occasion. Much less
subtlety or planning involved with this type of plan. This wouldn't be so bad if
they had been aware of any of the other possible plans, but this wasn't
possible as they were basically "playing it by ear" based on general notions
despite all three players having over 2100 Elo.

In this regard, Peter Wells tells us about the following position

It seems that here Black considered he had a good position. Black is making
the c5 break. After moves 14. Na4, c5 15. dc5, Nc5 16. Nc5, Bc5 17. Rc3,
Qb6?!

White's position becomes clearly advantageous. The white bishop on f4

controls possible black counterplay on the white queen. While Black has
problems due to the weakness of the a6 pawn and the impossibility of
keeping the "c" file under control.

If so, the rapid way in which White wins is a reflection of the difference in
valuation of both sides and the better knowledge of patterns on the part of
Cvitan who led White.

Matte Patterns
A mating pattern is a frequently occurring checkmate scheme in chess . In the
following diagrams it is the white ones that give mate.
Anastasia Mate

A typical Anastasia mate

Main article: Mate Anastasia

In Anastasia's Mate , a knight and a rook team up to trap the opposing king between
the edge of the board and a piece on their side. This mate gets its name from the novel
Anastasia und das Schachspiel by Wilhelm Heinse . 1

Anderssen Mate

Anderssen Mate

Anderssen's mate (named after Adolf Anderssen ), the rook or queen mates the
opposing king on the back rank, supported by a piece that attacks diagonally, such as
a pawn or bishop .
Arabic mate

Arabic mate

The Arab mate is the one given to the opposing king in a corner of the board with a
rook supported by a knight.

Mate in the back row

Mate in Black's back row

Back rank mate usually occurs when a rook or queen mates a king locked in his front
rank by his own pieces (usually pawns). It is also known as the " mate of the hallway
" or "death alley."
Bishop and Knight Mate

Mate of_bishop and knight against king

Bishop and knight checkmate against king occurs when a king, a bishop and a knight
of the same color checkmate the opposing king in one of the corners of the board
controlled by the bishop, or one of the squares adjacent to them. This mate is usually
the most difficult of the so-called basic mates, as it requires in some cases up to 35
moves to reach mate.

Blackburne Mate

Blackburne Mate

Blackburne's mate , named after Joseph Henry Blackburne is a rare method of

checkmate. This scheme uses the opposing rook (although it can also be a bishop or
queen) to remove the black king from (for example) the f8 escape square. One of the
bishops remotely restricts the movements of the opposing king by controlling the
squares of one color, while the other bishop mates supported by the knight that
controls the other squares in front of the king.
Boden Mate

Boden Mate.

In Boden's mate, two bishops attack the opposing king through crossed diagonals,
obstructed by pieces from their side; usually a rook and a pawn. It is named after the
Englishman Samuel Boden .

Cozio Mate

Mate from Cozio. After 1.Qh6+, Black is forced to White plays 2.Qh2 mate.
play 1...Kg3

The Cozio mate is a common mate scheme. This is an inverted version of the nesting
mate . It was named after a study composed in 1766 by Carlo Cozio .
Mate Damiano's Bishop

Damiano's bishop mate.

Damiano's bishop mate is a classic mate scheme, which occurs with a queen
supported by a bishop. It is named after the Portuguese Pedro Damiano .

Damiano Mate

Damiano Mate

Damiano's mate is one of the oldest mate schemes. It occurs when a pawn controls
the escape squares in front of the opposing king and using the queen to deliver the
final blow. This scheme is often arrived at by sacrificing a rook, usually on the h7
square, then checking with the queen on the 'h' file and then mating with the queen.
This mate was first published by Pedro Damiano in 1512. 2
David and Goliath mate

David and Goliath mate

The David and Goliath checkmate can take many forms, although it is generally
characterized by being executed by a pawn and in which the enemy pawns are
nearby.

Double Bishop Mate

Double bishop mate.

The Double Bishop Mate is a classic method similar to Boden's mate, although
simpler. This mate involves two bishops attacking a king trapped behind a pawn on
its initial square.
Matte fitted

Matte fitted.

The nested mate occurs when a queen supported by any of her pieces mates a king
far from the board, whose pieces occupy one or more of its escape squares. The
pieces that enclose the opposing king can be any, different from an unpinned knight.

Epaulette Mate

Epaulette Mate.

An Epaulette or epaulette mate is, in the broadest definition, a mate where the
opposing king is enclosed by pieces that occupy their escape squares in the two
adjacent columns. The most common Epaulette mate is that of a king confined by his
two rooks in the back rank. It receives its name from the visual similarity of a king
between his towers and that of a soldier with his epaulets.
Example games

 Van Wely–Morozevich, Wijk aan Zee 2001

 Carlsen–Ernst, Wijk aan Zee 2004
 Anand-Carlsen, Tal Memorial Blitz World Championship 2009

Greco Mate

Greco Mate.

Greco's mate , named after the Italian Gioachino Greco , occurs when a queen or a
rook mates the opposing king located in a corner of the board, who also has a pawn
on his side taking away the escape square immediately diagonally, and a bishop
controlling the escape square on the adjacent file.

Mate in the h column

Mate in the h column.

Mate on the h-file is the one given by a rook on the last square of the h-file,
supported by a bishop. It also occurs on other files, for example against an uncastling
black king on the e8 square and a rook on d8 supported by a bishop on g5.

hook mate

Hook mate.

The hook mate is a mate between a rook, a knight and a pawn of one side against a
king and a pawn of the other. The opposing king is trapped between the rook
(protected by the knight), the knight (protected by his pawn), and trapped by his side's
pawn.

Lolli Mate

Lolli Mate.

Lolli's mate (named after Giambattista Lolli ), is usually given against a king in a
fianchetto whose bishop has already been eliminated, or against a castling with
weaknesses in the surrounding squares.
Matte by Max Lange

Matte by Max Lange

Max Lange 's mate is another form of mate with a queen supported by a bishop.

Morphy Mate

Morphy's mate.

The Morphy mate , named after Paul Morphy , is a mate made by a bishop to a king
in a corner of the board, enclosed by an unmoved own pawn, and confined to the
edge by an enemy rook.
Mate of the Opera

Mate of the Opera.

The Opera mate is a variant of the mate on the h-file, given by a rook supported by a
bishop. It receives its name from the query game that Paul Morphy won in 1858 at
the Paris Opera against the Duke of Brunswick and the Comte d'Isouard.

Pillsbury Mate

Pillsbury mate example: 1.Rxg7+ Kh8 2.Rg1+ Rf6 3.Bxf6#

This dunk is named after player Harry Nelson Pillsbury . It works like a windmill
between a rook and a bishop against a king locked in a corner.
Mate de Réti

Mate de Réti.

Variant of Réti's mate.

The Réti mate is named after the Czech player Richard Réti , who won in this way in
eleven moves against Savielly Tartakower in 1910, in the city of Vienna . It is a mate
given by a bishop protected by a queen or a rook, to a king attacked by a diagonal and
obstructed by his own pieces on the remaining squares.
Mate of the coz
Main article: Mate de la coz

Mate of the coz.

Kick mate happens when a knight checkmates a king completely surrounded by

pieces of its color. It is also known as Philidor 's mate.

suffocation mate

Suffocation mate.

This mate is similar to the Pillsbury mate, although it is produced in coordination of a

knight and a bishop.
Swallowtail mate

"Swallowtail" mate.