TacticsPlay as white

Mate in Five

Read the mating net before the first check: the flight squares, the piece to deflect, the order of checks.

Introduction

Nobody calculates a mate in five one check at a time. You read the net first: which squares the king can run to, which of your pieces already cover the rest, and which enemy piece is holding the net open. Only then do you order the checks, so that the king never gets a free move. The length is not the difficulty — the counterplay is. In the positions below a single slow move hands Black a draw, a piece, or a mate of its own, so every white move has to be a check.

Lesson Content

Try this position

The black king on g5 has wandered into the open, and the net is almost built: the pawn on g4 covers f5 and h5, the pawn on h3 guards g4, and the king's own pawns on g6 and h4 block two more squares. That leaves f4, f6 and h6 — three flight squares, with two white rooks and a pawn to take them away. Read the finish before the first move: the king is driven onto the h-file, a pawn check pushes it to h5, and a rook arrives on h7. Black's rooks on b1 and h1 are a move from checking your own king, so every white move must be a check.

Mating NetKing Attack

Try this position

1. ..f4+

Start the hunt: force the king out from behind its pawns and into the open, where your rooks can reach it.

f4+ takes one flight square away and offers the pawn on it. 1. ..Kxf4 is Black's most stubborn reply, since 1. ..Kf6 and 1. ..Kh6 are mated even faster. Out on f4 the king is cut off from its pawns, 2. Rf7+ drives it back to g5, and the rooks and the g-pawn close the box from there. The whole sequence is a forced mate in five.

Mating NetKing Attack

Alternative Moves

Rxc6 — Rxc6 wins a pawn and loses the mate: it is not a check, so Black gets 1...Rbg1+ 2.Kf3 Rxh3+ and it is the white king that is being chased — the game is level and the net is gone.

Try this position

2. Re5+

Close the box one rank at a time — leave the king nothing but the h-file.

Re5+ closes the fifth rank. The rook on f7 already covers f4 and f6 and the pawn on h3 still guards g4, so 1. ..Kh6 is the only legal reply — the king is on the h-file at last. Then 2. g5+ takes the sixth rank away as well, after 2. ..Kh5 the pawn is defended by the e5-rook, and 3. Rh7# arrives on the file the king was herded onto — a forced mate in three from here.

Mating Net

Alternative Moves

Rfe7 — Rfe7 is a threat, not a check, and against a king this exposed one free move is all Black needs: 1...Rhg1+ 2.Kh2 Rg3 and the white king is the one boxed in — the hunt fizzles out into a draw.

Try this position

Now the counterplay is real: Black threatens Qf2# and Rh1# at the same time, so anything but a check loses on the spot. Read the net anyway. The black king on f8 has a single flight square, g8 — the rook on b7 covers e7 and f7, and its own bishop sits on e8. That bishop is the piece holding the net open: as long as it stands there, no rook check along the eighth rank is possible. The plan has three parts: a check that also parks a knight where it will cover the king's escape squares, a check that pulls the bishop off e8, and the rooks finishing on the eighth rank and the h-file.

Mating NetDeflection

Try this position

3. Nxe6+

Black mates next move if you pause. Open with the check that also parks a piece on the square from which it will guard the king's escape.

Nxe6+ is the one check that also builds the net: from e6 the knight covers g5 and g7 for the rest of the sequence. 1. ..Kg8 is the only legal reply, with e7 and f7 the b7-rook's and e8 its own bishop's. Now 2. f7+ Bxf7 pulls the bishop off e8, 3. Rc8+ Kh7 checks along the rank it used to shield, 4. Rxf7+ Kh6 drives the king onto the h-file, and 5. Rh8# ends it. A forced mate in five. Black never gets the free move it needs for its own.

Mating NetKing Attack

Alternative Moves

Nh7+ — Nh7+ is the same idea with the knight on the wrong square. After 1...Kg8 2.f7+ Bxf7 3.Rc8+ Kxh7 4.Rxf7+ Kh6 5.Rh8+ the king simply steps out to g5 — a knight on h7 would never have covered that square — and with the checks used up White is lost to the queen and rook.

Try this position

3. ..f7+

Your rooks need the eighth rank. Pull the one defender off it with a check.

f7+ is a pawn check with a single purpose: to pull the bishop off e8. With e8 empty the eighth rank is open — 1. ..Bxf7 2. Rc8+ Kh7 3. Rxf7+ Kh6 herds the king onto the h-file, where 4. Rh8# is the end, the knight on e6 covering g5 and g7 — a forced mate in four from here. Declining with 1. ..Kh7 or 1. ..Kh8 is worse still, because then the pawn queens with check and the mate comes sooner.

DeflectionMating Net

Alternative Moves

Rc8 — Rc8 looks like the same check, but with the bishop still on e8 it is no check at all — and one free move is all Black needs: 1...Rh1# ends the game at once.

Try this position

The last position is the most famous net in chess, and the order of the checks is everything. The black king on h7 has one flight square, h6: the queen on e6 covers g8, the knight on g6 covers h8, and the knight itself is protected by the bishop on f5 and the pawn on h5, so the king cannot take it. Behind that knight the bishop is aimed straight at h7. Black's queen on e3 is already in White's camp, so a quiet move hands Black a free attack on your king and the material that comes with it — the sequence has to be checks from start to finish, and the knight has to end on the one square from which it mates a king that its own pieces have boxed in.

Smothered MateMating Net

Try this position

Every knight move from g6 is a discovered check from the bishop on f5, and the queen can simply take the knight on f6. Which first move forces mate?

Smothered MateSacrificeDiscovered Attack

Try this position

What tells you a long forced mate is there before you have calculated a single line?

Mating Net

Key Takeaways

Read the net before the sequence: flight squares, the pieces already covering them, the hole that is left.
Find the one enemy piece holding the net open, and the check that deflects it.
Every move is a check — a long mate lives on the opponent never getting a free move.

Now play it through

Step through every move on a real board, try the wrong ones, and ask Knighty why they fail.

Practice Interactively

Related Lessons

Mate in Four

Double Check and Smothered Mate

Calculate the Line

Summary

A mate in five is a mating net with the move order worked out. Count the king's flight squares, find the one enemy piece that keeps the net open and the check that removes it, and then order the checks so the king never gets a free move — because at this length the opponent always has a threat of its own.

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Practice Interactively

Next in this course

Opera Mate

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