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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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