Back-Rank Checkmates

This article is by WIM Alexey Root

Going in to the last round of the Nebraska Elementary Championship tournament, I was one point ahead of the other players. In chess tournaments, a win is scored as one point, a draw as a half a point, and a loss as zero points. The winner of the tournament is the person that scores the most points. If I won or drew my last round, no other player could match my points. I would be the 1976 Nebraska Elementary Champion. See the map of Nebraska at right? That is my home state! I was born in Lincoln, the state capital.

As the last round started, I was doing really well! I won material. I smiled at my coach, National Master Loren Schmidt. (Nowadays, especially at National Scholastics, coaches are not allowed to be so close to their students' games.) I was sure I was going to win.

Then something happened. Something that had never happened to me before. A back-rank mate! BoundingOwl wrote an article about back-rank mates that you could read. My book Thinking With Chess: Teaching Children Ages 5-14 also explains back-rank checkmates. Here is a photo of me with copies of my book.

11-2-12 Thinking with Chess Alexey Rootsmallversion.jpg

Here is an excerpt from Thinking With Chess: Teaching Children Ages 5-14, adapted for ChessKid.com:

Back-rank checkmates occur when a castled king is hemmed in by his own second-rank or seventh-rank pawns. The castled king’s rook is no longer next to its king, leaving that king vulnerable.

Some chess players like to play h3 (as White) or h6 (as Black) to create an escape square for the king on h2 or h7. The escape square is known by the German word Luft.

Another mate defense is to capture the attacking rook or queen when it gives check on the back rank.

A final strategy for escaping checkmate is blockade or interposition. In Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess (1966/1972), Fischer distinguished between useless and useful blocking by the defender.

Now you know what a back-rank checkmate looks like. You also reviewed the three ways to get out of check:

1) capturing the checking piece or pawn,

2) blocking, or

3) moving away

Each time you are in check, look to see if you can escape from check in one of those three ways. If you can win material by capturing the checking piece or pawn, that is usually your best way to escape check.

I have all the scoresheets from the 1976 Nebraska Elementary Championship except one. I'm sure I threw away the scoresheet for the game I lost by back-rank checkmate. I wish I had that scoresheet now. I also miss having the scoresheet from my loss by en passant. You can learn more from your losses than your wins. So save your scoresheets!

There is one more lesson to be learned from what happened to me in the last round at the 1976 Nebraska Elementary Championship. Remember how I smiled at my coach? I was smiling because I was no longer worried about my game. Because I was ahead in material, I was completely sure that I was winning. The lesson is it's not over until it's over. You have not won a game until you have checkmated or your opponent has resigned. Do not celebrate before the game has ended!