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Mastering Checkmates Reviewed by Carl Tillotson
This book is a companion to the author’s Mastering Chess Tactics, and is primarily aimed at club and tournament players. The author, Neil McDonald, is a grandmaster and a recognised British Chess Federation Coach. Having read Neil’s book on the French, I was looking forward to reading this book, confident that his writing style present in previous books would lend itself well to what is a difficult topic to address. The book itself is well presented with each chapter organized in the same manner. Neil provides an introduction to the ‘motif’ in consideration, then further outlines these ideas with examples taken from grandmaster play, before concluding the chapter with some well chosen puzzles. The book is broken down into what could be termed ‘classic’ mates and some not so classic. The chapter on the ‘Killer Pawn’ is an interesting sidestep:
Neil’s preamble at the start of each chapter makes it easier to understand the examples that are to follow. However, on first reading there were occasions where I have to confess the examples he had chosen appeared to be too complicated. On a second, and on most occasions a third and more reading, some of the ideas do sink in. Nevertheless, I was often left with a sore head. It was not an easy book to read casually. In hindsight, that might have been a mistake on my part. This book is obviously aimed at a chess player who is prepared to sit down and work through the book, check the examples and then go back and re-read the chapter again. The book is obviously a ‘tactics’ based book, and working on the principles of the ‘fantasy position’ that we dream about when playing the game in our heads. The positions are well chosen and McDonald does take his time explaining the ‘mating net’ patterns. The examples he uses from real Grandmaster play lend themselves readily to these patterns, even if a few examples are simply overly complex for the theme he is trying to demonstrate. Most of the checkmate patterns are themes that have been seen before, an interesting chapter is the one regarding the 'Killer Pawn'. The first 'concept' diagram that Neil McDonald considers is the following:
It is White to play, and the mate threat is quite obvious, you are looking for mate on h8. 1.Qe6+ Kh8 2.Qh3+ Kg8 3.Qh7 mate Quite straightforward, well OK, using the theme above work out the mating threat from this position, which is an example from the actual book itself.
Looks complicated doesn't it. Well the theme we have just looked at should give you a clue as to the best move! It is of course, Ng6+ !! 1.Ng6+ hxg6 2.hxg6 Qf5 [ 2...Bd6 3.Qh5+ Kg8 4.dxe5! Bxe5 5.Rxe5! fxe5 6.Bg5] 3.Bd3 Qxd3 4.Qh5+ Kg8 5.Qh7 mate. Notice that even if Black tries to avoid getting mated with 2...Bd6, the combination of further sacrifices leads to the following position:
...where mate cannot be avoided. An illustration of the material contained in the book! The book will appeal to the serious chess player, it presents a number of ‘classical’ ideas to a modern audience, and it does make an attempt to show you the paths through the middle-game to the glorious end – which is Checkmate! It is not a beginners book, but aimed at the improving chess player who wants to better understand about ‘finishing’ the game. It is an ideal companion but will require some work to get the best out of the book. I think this book would
be rated as a definite buy, if the price was somewhat lower.
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