Fool's mate
The fastest checkmate in chess, delivered in two moves.
Fool's mate is the fastest possible checkmate in chess, delivered after the fewest moves from the starting position. It occurs only when White makes a severe blunder, allowing Black to checkmate on the second move with the queen. The mate illustrates the vulnerability of the f- and g-pawns during the opening.
Quick Facts
- Moves
- 1.f3 e6 2.g4 Qh4#
- Birth
- Gioachino Greco (c. 1620), via Francis Beale (1656)
Facts from the source article.
History
Fool's mate was named and described in Francis Beale's 1656 text The Royal Game of Chess-Play, which adapted the work of Gioachino Greco. Before the mid-19th century, there was no fixed convention on which player moved first; Beale noted the matter was decided by prior contest or player choice. In Beale's example, Black moved first, and White achieved checkmate after each player made two moves. Paraphrased in modern terms with White always moving first, the sequence is 1.f3 e6 2.g4 Qh4.
Variations
Mating patterns similar to fool's mate can occur early, exploiting the weakness along the e1–h4 and e8–h5 diagonals. White can mate Black using a similar pattern, but it requires at least an extra turn (three moves or five ply). The principle is the same: a player advances their f- and g-pawns, allowing the opponent's queen to mate along the unblocked diagonal. A board position illustrating White's version appeared as a problem in Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess and in a compendium by László Polgár, with the comment that Black foolishly weakened the king's defenses. One possible sequence is 1.e4 g5 2.d4 f6 3.Qh5. A possibly apocryphal variant, 1.e4 g5 2.Nc3 f5?? 3.Qh5#, has been attributed to Masefield and Trinka, though the names have also been reported as Mayfield or Mansfield and Trinks or Trent. A similar mate can occur in From's Gambit: 1.f4 e5 2.g3 exf4 3.gxf4?? Qh4#. There are 347 possible three-move mates for White. Even with queen odds, White can mate in three moves, e.g., 1.e4 f6 2.Be2 g5?? 3.Bh5#. If the typical fool's mate setup is played but White plays h3 instead of g4, a forced mate can result: 2...Qh4+ 3.g3 Qxg3#; there are eight distinct ways for this to happen. A well-known trap in the Dutch Defense occurred in the game Frank Melville Teed–Eugene Delmar, 1896: 1.d4 f5 2.Bg5 h6 3.Bh4 g5 4.Bg3 f4 5.e3 h5 6.Bd3 Rh6 7.Qxh5+ Rxh5 8.Bg6#. A similar trap appeared in a 1625 game by Gioachino Greco: 1.e4 b6 2.d4 Bb7 3.Bd3 f5? 4.exf5 Bxg2? 5.Qh5+ g6 6.fxg6 Nf6??.
More in Chess Terminology
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced