Arabian mate
An Arabian mate is a corner checkmate where a rook gives the check from beside the king, and a knight, a jump away from the rook, guards it and covers the one flight square the rook leaves open.
Put a king in a corner and give its opponent one rook and one knight, and this old pattern appears. With the king on h8, White's rook lands on h7. The rook takes g7 away and, standing next to the king, delivers check. The king cannot capture it because a knight on f6 protects h7, and that same knight covers g8, the other square the king might have used.
Notice the geometry: rook and knight are a knight's jump apart. Mirror the picture and you have the same mate in every corner. No pawns are needed, which is why the pattern is common in endgames where a king gets pushed into the corner.
To use it, drive the king into a corner, route a knight to the covering square, and then bring the rook to the edge square beside the king, ideally with tempo. The knight usually has to arrive first, because it is the slowest piece to place.
To avoid it, keep your king away from the corner when an enemy rook and knight are around, and look for a way to trade or chase the knight before the rook arrives. Keeping a defender that can take the rook or the knight is the safest cure.
In the diagram White plays Rh7#. The rook slides from d7 to h7, the knight on f6 guards it and covers g8, and the rook itself covers g7.
Also worth reading is Anastasia's mate. Anastasia's mate is a checkmate in which a knight and a rook trap a king on the edge, with the king's own pawn blocking its escape and the rook checking along the edge file.
A neighboring idea is Smothered mate. A smothered mate is a knight checkmate against a king hemmed in by its own men: every square the king could use holds its own pieces, and a knight check cannot be blocked.
To see how often "Arabian mate" or a pattern like it decides your own games, book a first lesson: George Li reviews your games and writes a study plan around what he finds.
Related terms
Checkmate, or mate, ends a chess game at once: the king of the side to move is under attack, and none of that side's legal moves can remove the attack, so the player who delivered it wins.
A smothered mate is a knight checkmate against a king hemmed in by its own men: every square the king could use holds its own pieces, and a knight check cannot be blocked.
Anastasia's mate is a checkmate in which a knight and a rook trap a king on the edge, with the king's own pawn blocking its escape and the rook checking along the edge file.
A mating net is a setup in which the enemy king is surrounded by attackers and its own pieces so tightly that checkmate cannot be avoided, even if the final blow is a move or two away.
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