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chess noob Quick Wins! is a series of short videos, to demonstrate very quick wins! As a beginner, you become aware of the Scholar’s Mate and the Fool’s Mate, but neither of these show up in real games. However, there are tricky quick checkmates and wins that occur, even at the intermediate level of chess.

Today’s game is from @Blunder_Miflin who reached out with this amazing checkmate pattern in the London system. They had bought my book and sent in a photo of them going through it, thanks mate!

@Blunder_Miflin sent through two games with the same checkmate pattern, and I’m going to go through the shorter game. In this game, they used the London against the Dutch Defense, while in the other, against the English.

My subscriber had the White pieces, and as noted, it began as a London vs the Dutch (1. d4 f5 2. Bf4 d5 3. e3). Now the interesting thing here is that how Black played the Dutch might not have been the best approach (either Nf6 or e6 on the second move is better), but this gives White an opportunity. One of the risks with the Dutch Defense is that Black has a weakness, potentially serious, along the f-square (light square) diagonal to their king.

The game moves a few steps forward and White develops their pieces very normally. Black pushes their kingside flank pawns, with an aim to gain space, but this is a tactical mistake. Again, their better approach would have been to strength their centre and to defend that light square diagonal.

Against (7. Ne5), Black blinks and makes a fatal blunder (7… e6) and a very beautiful checkmate net [+M3] has been woven in the centre of the board! Firstly, the queen strikes down that light square diagonal with (8. Qh5+!)! The king is forced to e7. The queen now infiltrates into the position with (9. Qf7+) and the king if forced to step further into the field of battle onto d6. And then the final move, (10. Nec4#) – the knight and bishop deliver a brilliant double-check checkmate, DOUBLE CHECKMATE!

Incredibly, not a single piece or pawn has left the board at the end of the game. Amazing! GG!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/daily/630304983

[Event "Let's Play!"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2024.03.04"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Blunder_Miflin"]
[Black "Whiterook1711"]
[Result "1-0"]
[CurrentPosition "r1bq1bnr/1pp2Q2/p1nkp2p/3p1pp1/2NP1B2/3BP3/PPPN1PPP/R3K2R b KQ - 5 10"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "A80"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Dutch-Defense-2.Bf4"]
[UTCDate "2024.03.04"]
[UTCTime "19:22:59"]
[WhiteElo "1005"]
[BlackElo "940"]
[TimeControl "1/259200"]
[Termination "Blunder_Miflin won by checkmate"]
[StartTime "19:22:59"]
[EndDate "2024.03.06"]
[EndTime "00:50:07"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/daily/630304983"]
[WhiteUrl "https://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/v1/user/327583511.7f9d99fe.50x50o.0adda3fddd18.jpg"]
[WhiteCountry "73"]
[WhiteTitle ""]
[BlackUrl "https://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/v1/user/100318490.2583a2c0.50x50o.37e93da9aabf.jpeg"]
[BlackCountry "3"]
[BlackTitle ""]

1. d4 f5 2. Bf4 d5 3. e3 {White plays the London System, and Black responds with
the Dutch Defense. Notably, White has captured a bit of an advantage here [+1]
and note the potentially weak f-square diagonal to the king.} 3... a6 4. Nf3 Nc6
5. Bd3 h6 $6 {[%c_arrow
e7e6;keyPressed;none;from;e7;opacity;0.8;to;e6;persistent;false][%c_highlight
e6;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e6;persistent;false][%c_effect
h6;square;h6;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true] Black is fight along the flank,
but probably needed to shore up their centre [+1.8]} 6. Nbd2 $6 {[%c_arrow
f3e5;keyPressed;none;from;f3;opacity;0.8;to;e5;persistent;false][%c_highlight
e5;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e5;persistent;false][%c_effect
d2;square;d2;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true] Stockfish thinks that an immediate
attack is best} 6... g5 7. Ne5 e6 $4 {[%c_effect
e6;square;e6;type;Blunder;persistent;true][%c_arrow
g8f6;keyPressed;none;from;g8;opacity;0.8;to;f6;persistent;false][%c_highlight
f6;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f6;persistent;false,e6;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e6;persistent;false]
A terminal blunder - Black needed to defend the h5 square and the light square
diagonal $1} 8. Qh5+ $1 {[%c_effect
h5;square;h5;type;GreatFind;persistent;true][%c_highlight
h5;keyPressed;alt;opacity;0.8;square;h5;persistent;false] Mate-in-two $1} 8... Ke7
{forced} 9. Qf7+ Kd6 {forced...} 10. Nec4# {[%c_effect
e1;square;e1;type;Winner,d6;square;d6;type;CheckmateBlack][%c_arrow
f4d6;keyPressed;none;from;f4;opacity;0.8;to;d6;persistent;false,c4d6;keyPressed;none;from;c4;opacity;0.8;to;d6;persistent;false,d4c5;keyPressed;none;from;d4;opacity;0.8;to;c5;persistent;false,f7d7;keyPressed;none;from;f7;opacity;0.8;to;d7;persistent;false][%c_highlight
d6;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;d6;persistent;false,c5;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;c5;persistent;false,e5;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e5;persistent;false,e7;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e7;persistent;false,d7;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;d7;persistent;false]
Double-check checkmate $1 WOW $1} 1-0