Fool's mate

In chess, Fool's Mate, also known as the "Two-Move Checkmate", is the checkmate in the fewest possible number of moves from the start of the game. This can only be achieved by Black, who can deliver checkmate on move 2 with the queen. Fool's Mate received its name because it can only occur if White plays extraordinarily weakly (i.e. foolishly). Even among rank beginners, the mate almost never occurs in practice.

An example of the Fool's Mate consists of the moves:

resulting in the position shown. The pattern can have slight variations: White might play 1.f4 instead of 1.f3, or might play 1.g4 first, and Black might play 1...e6 instead of 1...e5.

Similar mating patterns can occur early in the game. For example, in 1. e4 g5 2. d4 f6?? 3. Qh5#, the basic Fool's Mate pattern is the same: a player advances his f- and g-pawns, which permit the enemy queen to mate along the unblocked diagonal. One such Fool's Mate is widely reported to have occurred in a possibly apocryphal 1959 game between Masefield and Trinka which lasted just three moves: 1. e4 g5 2. Nc3 f5?? 3. Qh5# A similar mate can occur in From's Gambit: 1. f4 e5 2. g3? exf4 3. gxf4?? Qh4#

A well-known trap in the Dutch Defence occurred in the game Frank Melville Teed vs. Eugene Delmar, 1896:

1. d4 f5 2. Bg5 h6 3. Bf4 g5 4. Bg3 f4

5. e3

5... h5 6. Bd3?!

6... Rh6??

7. Qxh5+!

7... Rxh5 8. Bg6#

A similar trap occurred in a game published by Gioachino Greco in 1625:

1. e4 b6 2. d4 Bb7 3. Bd3 f5? 4. exf5 Bxg2? 5. Qh5+ g6 6. fxg6 Nf6??

7. gxh7+! Nxh5 8. Bg6#

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