Chess concept: backrank mates

Back-rank mates are checkmates to the opposing king delivered by a rook or a queen on the rank where the opposing king started. The opposing king is trapped by his own pieces, unable to escape the check.

On the lower levels of ELO, this checkmate pattern is often encountered, and fairly common. Sometimes, sacrificing lower-value pieces is required to delivered the checkmate, but it is worth it since it is, well, checkmate.

A few example of back-rank mates delivered by a queen:

Once again, beginners shall not forget the king has the most value of any piece, and sacrificing the queen to deliver the mate is worth it.

A promotion can also lead to a backrank mate:

Here are a few more advanced concepts. To deliver backrank mate, it may be necessary to first push back (or lure) the opposing king so he is completely stuck behind his pieces:

Here is below an example where the queen capture (sacrifice) forces the Black king behind his pawns, allowing White's rook to deliver the finishing blow: