F Pawnless? Diagonal Doom!

Missing Your f Pawn?  You Should Write Him a Letter, by, Ms Jessica Martin (aka BoundingOwl)

"But I have no arms to write you back!"  Said the sad missing f pawn.

Do you know the four-move checkmate?  What square is the mate on?  (f7) And if you have black?  (f2) Now what happens when a bishop is on c4 and the black king has castled kingside? (The f pawn is in an absolute pin.)

The f7 pawn is pinned above.

So if that f7 pawn is missing, notice how the bishop exerts extra pressure along the a2-g8 diagonal.  And oh yes, it would be CHECK.  Pretty serious!  Can the black king move at all once he runs into the corner?  Let's take advantage of that.  Follow this pattern closely:

Good!  Now you try.  This time it's black's turn.  Remember both black and white can use the same tactics and checkmate patterns---one side is not necessarily better than the other!

First, do you see the absolute pin?  Now, get rid of it!  Sacrifice!

Did you notice what kind of checkmate you used?

It was a Swallow's Tail Mate!  Click if you don't really know or remember that lesson.

Harder ones next time....don't skip it because you think you are some sort of f pawn genius.  I'm saving the tricky ones for last.  See if you can solve them next week for 100 bonus points!

Write a letter to a pen pal.  On paper.  With a pencil.  And send it snail mail!