Mating patterns · 詰みの形
The shapes a checkmate takes.
Most checkmates in shogi are one of a handful of shapes with names, and once you know the names you start seeing the shapes three moves before they happen. Here are the ten the app names when you solve a problem, each on a problem from the app’s library where the library holds the shape, and on a composed example where it does not.
On this page 11
Gold to the head 頭金 atama-kinGold to the belly 腹金 hara-kinGold from behind 尻金 shiri-kinSilver on the shoulder 肩銀 kata-ginDragon at one remove 一間竜 ikken-ryūThe sending sacrifice 送りの手筋 okuri no tesujiBlocking the escape square 退路封鎖 tairo fūsaKnight at the gold’s head 金頭の桂 kin-atama no keiCorner mate 雪隠詰 setchin-zumeThe hanging knight 吊るし桂 tsurushi-keiHow to use themEvery position below is black to play and mate, with white’s extra pieces in hand as the tsume convention requires. Solve it before you open the solution; the pattern is the answer, and the answer is the pattern.
Gold to the head 頭金 atama-kin
A gold played to the square the king faces covers every square it could run to. This is the first mate anyone learns and the one that ends most real games.
Look for it whenever the king has a pawn or a piece of yours directly in front of it and nothing of its own beside it. The gold on the head takes the three squares in front of the king and the two beside it; the piece behind the gold keeps the king from taking it. In real games this is how most attacks end, often with a pawn on the head first (the “head pawn”) and the gold dropped on the square the pawn vacates.
The problem: mate in one. Solution
▲G*4b
Solution
Step through the moves, or press play.
Tap a move to jump to it. Arrow keys work once the board has focus.
Gold to the belly 腹金 hara-kin
The same gold played from the side instead. It works when the king is already held against an edge or its own pieces.
The belly gold is the head gold turned sideways. A king on the edge, or with its own piece behind it, cannot use the squares the gold does not cover, so a gold beside the king does the work. It is the standard finish against a king that has run along the back rank.
The problem: mate in one. Solution
▲G*2b
Solution
Step through the moves, or press play.
Tap a move to jump to it. Arrow keys work once the board has focus.
Gold from behind 尻金 shiri-kin
A gold dropped behind the king, cutting off the retreat. Rarer than the other two, and the one beginners overlook because they only look forward.
The gold from behind covers the squares the king would retreat to, and forward pieces cover the rest. It appears when the king has come forward, out of its castle, and its own men are still behind it; beginners miss it because they only look at the squares in front of the king.
The problem: mate in one. Solution
▲G*1a
Solution
Step through the moves, or press play.
Tap a move to jump to it. Arrow keys work once the board has focus.
Silver on the shoulder 肩銀 kata-gin
A silver dropped diagonally in front of the king, supported so the king cannot take it. It gives check and covers the square beside the king on its side, and your other pieces hold the rest.
The shoulder is the square diagonally in front of the king, コビン (kobin) in Japanese. A silver dropped there checks along its forward diagonal and takes the square beside the king on the same side. It leaves the king’s head open, so the mate works when another piece already holds the head or the king’s own piece fills it. A silver beside the king, or straight behind it, gives no check at all, so the two silver moves named for those squares (腹銀 and 尻銀) close in on a king but never deliver the mate.
The problem: mate in one. Solution
▲S*1b
Solution
Step through the moves, or press play.
Tap a move to jump to it. Arrow keys work once the board has focus.
Dragon at one remove 一間竜 ikken-ryū
The dragon stands in a straight line with the king, one empty square between them. Anything the defender puts on that square is frozen where it stands, and the squares around the king stop being safe.
The dragon with one square between it and the king is the most useful endgame shape in the game. Anything the defender drops between them is pinned to the king; the king cannot step toward the dragon; and the dragon covers every square on its own rank and file. With a single gold or silver in hand the mate usually follows. If you remember one shape from this page, remember this one.
The problem: mate in seven. Solution
▲S*2d △K-1d ▲S*1e △K-2e ▲+R-3e △K-1f ▲+R-2f
Solution
Step through the moves, or press play.
Tap a move to jump to it. Arrow keys work once the board has focus.
The sending sacrifice 送りの手筋 okuri no tesuji
You give a piece next to the king knowing it must be taken. The capture drags the king one square toward your dragon, into the form the rest of the mate needs.
Sending, as in sending the king somewhere. You drop a piece next to the king that it has to take, and the capture puts the king on the square where the rest of the mate works, most often in line with a dragon. It looks like a sacrifice and is really a move that moves the king for you.
The problem: mate in five. Solution
▲S*2c △Kx2c ▲G*1c △K-2d ▲G-1d
Solution
Step through the moves, or press play.
Tap a move to jump to it. Arrow keys work once the board has focus.
Blocking the escape square 退路封鎖 tairo fūsa
You give a piece away on the square the king would run to, and a defending piece other than the king takes it. The piece that took now stands on the king’s escape square, and the mate that follows needs it there.
Tairo fūsa means closing the line of retreat. The king has a square it would run to; you put a piece on it for nothing, and the defender takes it with something other than the king. Now the king’s own piece stands on its escape square, and the mate that was not there a move ago is. The test is the final position: lift the blocking piece off the board and the king would walk out. In the sending sacrifice the KING takes and is moved; here another piece takes and the king is walled in.
The problem: mate in three. Solution
▲G*1b △Lx1b ▲S*2b
Solution
Step through the moves, or press play.
Tap a move to jump to it. Arrow keys work once the board has focus.
Knight at the gold’s head 金頭の桂 kin-atama no kei
A knight dropped on the square directly in front of a defending gold. The gold can take it, but only by leaving its post, and the knight’s two targets are the gold’s blind spots: the squares diagonally behind it, where the king usually stands.
A gold cannot move diagonally backward, so the two squares diagonally behind it are the only squares beside it that it does not cover. A knight on its head attacks exactly those two. Take the knight and the gold has left the king’s side; leave it and it jumps in. The proverb says there is no good answer to the knight at the gold’s head.
The problem: mate in three. Solution
▲N*3c △K-3a ▲G*4a
Solution
Step through the moves, or press play.
Tap a move to jump to it. Arrow keys work once the board has focus.
Corner mate 雪隠詰 setchin-zume
The king is caught in a corner with its own pieces on the squares beside it, so one check it cannot answer ends the game. The checking piece is often a knight, which nothing can block, much like smothered mate in chess.
Setchin (雪隠) is an old word for an outhouse: the king is shut into the smallest room on the board. It comes up most around corner castles, the Anaguma above all, where the generals that guarded the king become its walls. A king in the corner has only three squares next to it, so when its own pieces hold them, a knight or a pawn is often enough to finish.
The problem: mate in one. Solution
▲N*2c
Solution
Step through the moves, or press play.
Tap a move to jump to it. Arrow keys work once the board has focus.
The hanging knight 吊るし桂 tsurushi-kei
A knight gives the mating check from two squares in front of the king and one to the side. It jumps over anything in between, so the check cannot be blocked, and it mates when nothing can take the knight and every square around the king is already held.
Tsurushi means hanging, and the hanging knight is any mate a knight delivers. The knight checks from two squares in front of the king and one to the side, and because it jumps, nothing can be dropped in the way: the only answers are to take the knight or move the king. Look for it when no defender can reach the knight’s square and the squares around the king are already full or covered. The corner mate above is one case of it.
The problem: mate in one. Solution
▲N*2c
Solution
Step through the moves, or press play.
Tap a move to jump to it. Arrow keys work once the board has focus.
How to use them
- Count the escape squares. A king has at most eight. Every pattern here is a way of covering all of them with two or three pieces; when you see a king with three or fewer free squares, look for the shape that covers exactly those.
- Golds finish most often, but not always. The gold’s six-square move is the mating move in five of these ten. A silver, a knight or the dragon ends the other five, and the remaining pieces take away squares or drag the king into place.
- The daily tsume is practice for this. Most short problems in the app end in one of these shapes or a combination of two, and the app names the shape when you solve it.
Practise the shapes.
The app’s puzzles are mates from real games at your rating, plus a daily tsume and a ladder from mate in one upward. It names the pattern when you solve it.