Boden's mate

Boden's Mate Puzzle One: White to move, Bishop mate in two¹

Boden's mate is an elegant mate executed by an attacking pair of bishops controlling diagonals which criss-cross on the squares directly in front of an enemy King on his home rank, hemmed in by friendly pieces unable to interpose against the final check. The mate is named for Samuel Boden who used the checkmate pattern during an 1853 friendly match Schulder-Boden in London. The first recorded instance of the pattern was a decade prior, at the conclusion of Horwitz-Popert in Hamburg, 1844.²

Boden's mate is most likely to occur when the opponent has castled queen-side with a weak pawn structure or material deficit. Very often the final set-up includes a Queen sacrifice on c6 (or c3) to force pxQ and thereby open the final diagonal allowing the second Bishop to deliver checkmate.

Skeletal example below:

Having learned about the function and mechanism of the Boden's Mate, try to apply those principles to this more complex position...

Boden's Mate Puzzle Two: White to move, mate in three¹

Further instruction Chess

• Chessboard
  
• Chessboard laboratory
  
• Chess notation
  
• Chess Openings
  
• Endgames in Chess
  
• The Opposition, King vs King and single pawn
  

• "Checkmate pattern", Wikipedia, accessed 11/1/2018
  
• Wikipedia, "Boden's Mate", Accessed 11/1/2018.
  
• The Peruvian Immortal Game: Canal–NN, Budapest, 1934
  

IronNoder 2018: 04/30