Checkmate patterns
The hook mate
A rook gives mate protected by a knight, the knight is protected by a pawn, and the king's escape is blocked by one of its own. Three attackers in a chain, each holding the next, which is why it works with so little material.
How to spot it
The signature is your pawn on h6 or g6 supporting a knight, with a rook able to reach the file beside the king. When you have a knight and a rook near a castled king and a pawn that far advanced, the mate is usually two moves away and does not need the queen at all.
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
33...Rf2+ 34.Ke3 Bxf4+ 35.Kd3 Rd2#
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2. White to play Play it out →Answer
35.Rg4+ Kf8 36.Rg8+ Ke7 37.Re8#
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3. White to play Play it out →Answer
38.Qxg8+ Kxg8 39.Nf6+ Kf8 40.Rg8+ Ke7 41.Re8#
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4. White to play Play it out →Answer
23.Bxg7+ Kxg7 24.Rxh7#
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5. White to play Play it out →Answer
46.h4+ Kxh4 47.Rh2+ Kg5 48.Rh5#
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6. White to play Play it out →Answer
43.Rc8+ Kf7 44.Rf8#
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7. White to play Play it out →Answer
21.Qxh7+ Kxh7 22.Rh3+ Kg6 23.Rh6#
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8. White to play Play it out →Answer
36.Nd6+ Kf8 37.Rg8+ Ke7 38.Re8#
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9. White to play Play it out →Answer
26.Qxh6+ Kxh6 27.Nf5+ Kg6 28.Rh6#
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10. Black to play Play it out →Answer
30...Nf4+ 31.Kg1 Ne2+ 32.Kf1 Rh1+ 33.Rg1 Rxg1#
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11. White to play Play it out →Answer
44.Kd4 d2 45.Re7#
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12. White to play Play it out →Answer
28.Qe8+ Kxe8 29.Rb8+ Rd8 30.Rxd8+ Kf7 31.Rf8#
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.