Anderssen’s mate — Chess Library

A rook mates along the eighth rank while a pawn and the attacking king take every square the defender might have used. Named after Adolf Anderssen, who won the Immortal Game.

Lesson

White to move. Main line: 1. Rh8#

The rook checks from h8 and the king cannot step aside: moving to f8 does not escape the rook, because once g8 is vacated the rook sees straight down the rank.

The pawn on g7 blocks the square directly in front of the king, and the white king on g6 covers f7 and h7. Three attackers, each doing exactly one job, and none of them redundant.

It is worth comparing with the ordinary back-rank mate: there the defender’s own pawns build the cage, here the attacker brings it. The geometry is the same — the difference is who supplied the walls.