This mating pattern is called Anderssen's Mate because it was famously used by Adolf Anderssen in the mid-19th century. Anderssen was a German chess player and one of the strongest in Europe at his time. He was also a professor of mathematics (hence the icon on the card above representing both the first letter of his surname and a well known mathematical symbol).
The pattern involves an advanced pawn and a Rook attacking the opponent's King on the back rank. The Rook, protected by the pawn, delivers mate from the corner adjacent to the opponent's King. In the simplified example shown in the diagram above, White uses the pattern and wins with 1.Rh8#.
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When we started adding a playful touch to chess learning, we looked through thousands of videos and hundreds of books to find the best resources out there. Here's our curated selection of the best content we encountered on Anderssen's Mate. We also included some smaller creators who are growing fast and we believe deserve your attention. Check out these resources if you want to master this checkmate pattern.
In this episode of the massive Chess.com series about the 50 greatest chess players, GM Jan Gustafsson and GM Peter Heine Nielsen discuss Adolf Anderssen's life and present some of his achievements.
Regardless of your age, this book by Murray Chandler is a fun and efficient way to learn all the most important checkmate patterns, including Anderssen's Mate. Highly recommended.
This book by Georges Renaud is an old classic (1947) but has been recently re-translated because it remains one of the best introductions to checkmates. Have a look at it.
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