Checkmate patterns
The balestra mate
The queen takes away the squares around the king from a distance while a bishop delivers the check. Rarest of the named patterns here, a little over a thousand puzzles in a database of six million, which is why so few players have seen one.
How to spot it
It comes from queen and bishop working on different colours, so if trading queens or bishops feels natural in an attacking position, this is one reason not to. The queen usually stands two squares from the king covering three flight squares at once.
The positions
Easiest first. Every one is from a real game, and the rating under each board is what it costs the players who have tried it on lichess.
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1. Black to play Play it out →Answer
28...Rf6+ 29.Bf3 Bh3#
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2. Black to play Play it out →Answer
27...Rxg3+ 28.fxg3 Be3#
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3. Black to play Play it out →Answer
33...Qxd3+ 34.Kc1 Bb2#
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4. Black to play Play it out →Answer
31...Rg3+ 32.fxg3 Bd4#
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5. White to play Play it out →Answer
40.Qg5+ Kh7 41.Qxh5+ Kg7 42.Qxg6+ Kf8 43.Qf6+ Ke8 44.Bc6#
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6. White to play Play it out →Answer
26.Qd6+ Kc8 27.Rxc6+ bxc6 28.Ba6#
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7. Black to play Play it out →Answer
34...Qh4+ 35.Kg2 Qg3+ 36.Kf1 Qxf3+ 37.Ke1 Bb4+ 38.c3 Bxc3#
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8. White to play Play it out →Answer
26.Nxh7+ Kg7 27.Bf6#
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9. Black to play Play it out →Answer
16...Bf4+ 17.Kg1 Bxe3#
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10. Black to play Play it out →Answer
46...Be5+ 47.Kb1 Qxb3+ 48.Kc1 Bf4+ 49.Re3 Bxe3#
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11. White to play Play it out →Answer
49.Qd7+ Kxa6 50.Bc4+ b5 51.Qxb5+ Ka7 52.Qa6+ Kb8 53.Qb6+ Kc8 54.Be6#
Reading about a pattern is the easy half. Motify finds the positions where you missed one, by running your own lichess and Chess.com games through Stockfish, and puts each of them behind two or three puzzles on the same idea so you meet it having just found it three times. See how Motify works.
Positions from the lichess puzzle database, released under CC0.