Learn How to Spot a Mate in 2: Back Rank Mate
This chess endgame is a classic example of a forcing mating net where the attacking side uses a check to drive the king onto a vulnerable square. The key idea is not material gain, but coordination: a rook, bishop, and king combine to restrict escape squares and create a direct mating threat. In classical chess, these patterns often appear when the defender’s king is boxed in by its own pieces and pawns, leaving only one or two legal responses.