Checkmate patterns
The epaulette mate
The king sits with a rook on either side, like a pair of epaulettes, and a queen checks it from the front. The rooks that should be defending it are what take away both of its escape squares.
How to spot it
Look for a king on the back rank with its rooks not yet connected, on d8 and f8 with the king between them. A queen arriving on e-something with support is mate, and the sacrifice to get her there is usually worth it because the king cannot go sideways.
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
22...Qf4+ 23.Kh1 Ng3+ 24.Kg2 Qf2#
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2. Black to play Play it out →Answer
44...Rf3+ 45.Rf4 Re5#
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3. White to play Play it out →Answer
24.Nh5+ gxh5 25.Qg5#
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4. White to play Play it out →Answer
30.Rxg6+ hxg6 31.Rxg6+ Kf7 32.Qg7+ Ke8 33.Re6+ Qe7 34.Qxe7#
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5. Black to play Play it out →Answer
23...Rh1+ 24.Ke2 Qc2#
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6. Black to play Play it out →Answer
33...Rb8+ 34.Ka2 Rc2#
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7. White to play Play it out →Answer
17.Qxh7+ Kxh7 18.hxg6+ Kg7 19.Rh7#
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8. White to play Play it out →Answer
16.Qxg7+ Kxg7 17.Rg3+ Qg5+ 18.Rxg5#
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9. White to play Play it out →Answer
45.fxg5+ Kg7 46.Rg8#
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10. White to play Play it out →Answer
37.e5+ Qxe5 38.Rxf7#
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11. White to play Play it out →Answer
30.Qf6+ Kh7 31.Be4+ Kg8 32.Qg5#
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12. White to play Play it out →Answer
28.Qxg7+ Kxg7 29.Rg3+ Kh7 30.Rxf7#
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.