Fool's Mate, also known as the Two-Move Checkmate, is the quickest possible checkmate

Checkmate

Checkmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...

 in the game of chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

. A prime example consists of the moves:

1. f3 e5

2. g4 Qh4#

leading to the position shown. (The pattern can have slight variations – White

White and Black in chess

In chess, the player who moves first is referred to as "White" and the player who moves second is referred to as "Black". Similarly, the pieces that each conducts are called, respectively, "the white pieces" and "the black pieces". The pieces are often not literally white and black, but some...

 might play f2–f4 instead of f2–f3 or move the g-pawn

Pawn (chess)

The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...

 before the , and Black might play e7–e6 instead of e7–e5.)

Details

Fool's Mate received its name because it can only occur if White plays extraordinarily weakly (i.e., like a fool

Foolishness

Foolishness is the lack of wisdom. In this sense it differs from stupidity, which is the lack of intelligence. An act of foolishness is sometimes referred to as a folly....

). Even among rank beginners, the mate almost never occurs in practice.

The same basic mating pattern can also occur later in the game. For instance, there is a well-known trap in the Dutch Defence

Dutch Defence

The Dutch Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:-History:Elias Stein , an Alsatian who settled in The Hague, recommended the defence as the best reply to 1.d4 in his 1789 book Nouvel essai sur le jeu des échecs, avec des réflexions militaires relatives à ce jeu.-Theory:Black's 1.....

 which occurred in the 1896 game Frank Melville Teed vs. Eugene Delmar

Eugene Delmar

Eugene Delmar , was one of the leading US chess masters of 19th century and the four-time New York State champion in 1890, 1891, 1895 and 1897. He won a match against Robert Henry Barnes with only a single draw .-External links:...

:

1. d4 f5 2. Bg5 h6 3. Bf4 g5 4. Bg3 f4

It seems that Black has won the bishop

Bishop (chess)

A bishop is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player begins the game with two bishops. One starts between the king's knight and the king, the other between the queen's knight and the queen...

, but now comes ...

5. e3

Threatening Qh5#, a basic Fool's Mate.

5... h5 6. Bd3?!

6.Be2 is probably better, but the move played sets a trap.

6... Rh6?

Defending against Bg6#, but ...

7. Qxh5+! Rxh5 8.Bg6#

A similar mate can occur in From's Gambit: 1. f4 e5 2. g3 exf4 3. gxf4?? Qh4#

More generally, the term Fool's Mate is applied to all similar mates early in the game. For example, in 1. e4 g5 2. d4 f6 3. Qh5#, the basic Fool's Mate pattern is maintained: a player advances his f- and g-pawns, which permit a queen

Queen (chess)

The queen is the most powerful piece in the game of chess, able to move any number of squares vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of the first rank next to the king. With the chessboard oriented correctly, the white queen starts...

 to mate along the unblocked diagonal. One such Fool's Mate is widely reported to have occurred in a possibly apocryphal 1959 game between Masefield (or Mayfield, depending on the source consulted) and Trinka (or Trinks or Trent) which lasted just three moves: 1. e4 g5 2. Nc3 f5 3. Qh5#

Even more generally, the term Fool's Mate is used in chess variant

Chess variant

A chess variant is a game related to, derived from or inspired by chess. The difference from chess might include one or more of the following:...

s for the shortest possible mate, especially those which bear a resemblance to the orthodox chess Fool's Mate. For example, Fool's Mate in Progressive chess

Progressive chess

Progressive chess is a chess variant in which players, rather than just making one move per turn, play progressively longer series of moves. The game starts with white making one move, then black makes two consecutive moves, white replies with three, black makes four and so on...

 is: 1. e4 2. f6 g5 3. Qh5#

Similar trap

A similar trap once occurred in a game between Gioachino Greco and an anonymous opponent:

1. e4 b6 2. d4 Bb7 3. Bd3 f5? 4. exf5 Bxg2 5. Qh5+ g6 6. fxg6 Nf6??

Now 6...Bg7! would have allowed the game to continue, as the move opens up a flight square for the king at f8. But Black's greed has gotten the better of him.

7. gxh7+ Nxh5 8. Bg6#

See also

• Checkmate
  Checkmate
  Checkmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...
  
  
• Checkmate patterns
  Checkmate patterns
  A checkmate pattern is a pattern of checkmate that occurs fairly frequently in chess. The diagrams that follow show the checkmates with White checkmating Black.-Anastasia's mate:...
  
  
• Fool's Mate is sometimes used to mean Scholar's Mate
  Scholar's mate
  In chess, Scholar's Mate is the checkmate achieved by the moves 1. e4 e5 2. Qh5 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6? 4. Qxf7#. The moves might be played in a different order or in slight variation, but the basic idea is the same—the queen and bishop combine in a simple mating attack on f7 .Sometimes Scholar's Mate is...