Chess Patterns ❯ Checkmate Patterns | Mates by the Touch of a Queen ❯ Max Lange's Mate
Max Lange's Mate
Max Lange's Mate
This mating pattern is called Max Lange's Mate because it was famously used by Lange in an 1859 game against Adolf Anderssen. Max Lange was a German chess player who was also incredibly active as a chess writer, hence the icon above representing a quill pen (fountain pens and ballpoint pens had not yet been invented).
The pattern involves a Queen and a Bishop attacking a weakened castled position. The Queen, protected by the Bishop, delivers mate from a square adjacent to the opponent's King. It is a great demonstration of how Queen and Bishop can work together very efficiently against a compromised pawn cover. In the simplified example shown in the diagram above, White uses the pattern and wins with 1.Qg8#.
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Master Max Lange's Mate
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 Max Lange'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.
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Mating Motifs: The Max Lange Checkmate
Get all the basic details about the Max Lange Checkmate from this excellent YouTube short by The Chess Nerd.
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Max Lange's Mate (Checkmate Pattern You Must Know !)
In this nice video by ChessZen channel (unfortunately not that active anymore), we are treated to a slow-paced, rich-with-examples presentation of Max Lange’s mating pattern. Have a look at it.
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This video by IM Kostya Kavutskiy for Lichess channel is a very nice, in-depth presentation of the best games of Max Lange, featuring also the mating pattern that takes his name.
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How to Beat Your Dad at Chess*
Regardless of your age, this book by Murray Chandler is a fun and efficient way to learn all the most important checkmate patterns, including Max Lange's Mate. Highly recommended.
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This inexpensive book by Torsten B. Mattsson is a little gem. Aimed at beginners, it presents 60 different patterns in a unique and smart way: bare pattern > mate in one > mate in two.