Mate Monster: Mate on h7 (2)
It is time to master a new monster skill to mate the king on h7. In this lesson, your queen and bishop do not have immediate access to mate square. You need to make room first. This can be done in several ways.
Check out the examples to see how it works.
In example 1, White makes use of clearance. The pawn moves ahead to clear a diagonal for the queen. You have used this method of clearance before in lessons about defense and mate.
If you succeed in finding the mate plan in this lesson, you win. The other player is not sharp enough to prevent mate.
In example 2, White applies another method to make room. He uses a disco attack (discovered attack).
In chess, making a plan (example 1) is called strategy. Winning points by use of smart trick, like a discovered attack (example 2) is called tactics.
What do you have to do?
Checkmate the king on h7 (the red square) by making room for your queen and bishop. This can be done in two ways:
- Come up with a little plan: figure out what moves you need to make so that your queen and bishop can work together to deliver checkmate.
- Are the queen and bishop already pointed at h7? Then, search for a discovered attack.
The bishop is already pointed at h7. But what about the queen?
White would like to line up the queen with the bishop, but that is not a good move.
Black’s pawn would capture.
Moving the queen one square to the left is not good either, for the rook would capture.
So what can White do?
The pawn in front of the king can move one square ahead, making air (room) for the queen.
In the new move, the queen can attack.
This method of creating space is called clearance.
