Checkmate patterns
Boden's mate
Two bishops on crossing diagonals mate a king that has castled long and is boxed in by its own rook and pawns. The classic version begins with a queen sacrifice on c6 or c3, which strips the last pawn and opens the diagonal.
How to spot it
Look for a king on c1 or c8 with a rook next to it on b1 or b8, and pawns on a and d. If both your bishops can see the squares around that king, the sacrifice that opens the second diagonal is usually mate, and it is worth checking before anything quieter.
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.
-
1. White to play Play it out →Answer
25.Rxf6+ gxf6 26.Bh6#
-
2. White to play Play it out →Answer
22.Qxf6+ gxf6 23.Bh6#
-
3. Black to play Play it out →Answer
16...Qc3+ 17.bxc3 Ba3#
-
4. Black to play Play it out →Answer
27...Qxc3+ 28.bxc3 Ba3#
-
5. Black to play Play it out →Answer
12...Bh3#
-
6. White to play Play it out →Answer
35.Qg5+ Qg6 36.Be6#
-
7. White to play Play it out →Answer
20.Qxc6+ bxc6 21.Bxa6#
-
8. Black to play Play it out →Answer
10...Qf6+ 11.Bf3 Bh3#
-
9. Black to play Play it out →Answer
15...Qxc3+ 16.bxc3 Bxa3#
-
10. White to play Play it out →Answer
21.Qxd5+ Be6 22.Qxe6+ Rxe6 23.Bxe6#
-
11. White to play Play it out →Answer
19.Qxe6+ fxe6 20.Bxg6#
-
12. Black to play Play it out →Answer
25...Qxb6+ 26.Rxb6 Bd4+ 27.Ne3 Bxe3#
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.