Checkmate Patterns
In chess, the king is never captured—the player loses as soon as their king is checkmated. In formal games, most players resign an inevitably lost game before being checkmated. It is usually considered bad etiquette to continue playing in a completely hopeless position.
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In chess, several checkmate patterns occur frequently enough to have acquired specific names in chess commentary.
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Cozio's mate
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Cozio's mate is a common method of checkmating. It was named after a study by Carlo Cozio, published in 1766. Another name for this mate is Dovetail mate. It involves trapping the black king in the pattern shown. It does not matter how the queen is supported and it does not matter which type Black's other two pieces are so long as neither is an unpinned knight.
Damiano's bishop mate
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Damiano's bishop mate is a classic method of checkmating. The checkmate utilizes a queen and bishop, where the bishop is used to support the queen and the queen is used to engage the checkmate. The checkmate is named after Pedro Damiano.
Double bishop mate
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The Double bishop mate is a classic method of checkmating. It is similar to Boden's mate, but a bit simpler. The checkmate involves attacking the king using two bishops, resulting in the king being trapped behind a pawn that has not been moved.