This mating pattern is called the Dovetail Mate because the opponent's King is placed near two friendly pieces in a way that the resulting shape resembles the tail of a dove.
The pattern involves a Queen that, protected by another piece, delivers mate from a square adjacent to the opponent's King. This mate and the Swallow's Tail Mate are two great examples of the power of the Queen. The Queen controls so many squares that it can deliver a deadly attack almost all by itself, even against a King positioned far from the edges of the board. In the simplified example shown in the diagram above, White uses the pattern and wins with 1.Qf6#.
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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 the Dovetail 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.
Have a look at this video by GothamChess to learn, among others, the Dovetail Mate pattern. As usual Levy does a great job in making it fun and instructive at the same time.
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.
This excellent guide by Vladimir Barsky organizes the mating patterns by piece type and then breaks them down into dozens of mini-diagrams that are perfect for internalizing and recalling the patterns.
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