Boden's Mate Chess Puzzles
Free Boden's Mate chess puzzles. Practice this elegant checkmate pattern where two criss-crossing bishops deliver checkmate. Free to practise, graded easy to hard, no login required.
About boden's mate puzzles
Boden's mate is a striking pattern in which two bishops on crossing diagonals trap a king that has castled long. It usually arrives after a sacrifice that strips the pawn cover away, which is what makes it beautiful and easy to miss — the winning move often looks like it throws material away. These puzzles teach you to evaluate bishop pairs aiming at a king rather than counting material, and they train the willingness to calculate a sacrifice properly instead of dismissing it. Once you know the pattern you will start looking for it every time an opponent castles queenside.
How to train boden's mate
Forced mates reward exhaustive checking. Look at every check first, even the ones that look absurd — a mating net usually starts with a move that gives up material or puts a piece where it can be captured.
Questions
How many boden's mate puzzles are there?
Enough that you will not repeat them — this set is drawn from a library of over 1,000,000 puzzles taken from real games, graded from easy to hard.
What level is this suitable for?
Children from about age 5 upward, once they know how the pieces move, through to rated tournament players. Start on the easy set and move up when you are solving most of them at a glance.