Legal's Mate

Can you imagine winning a game in just eight moves while also sacrificing your queen? That's what you can do with Legal's Mate, a trap that you can use to punish a common opening mistake!

• What Is Legal's Mate?
• How To Deliver Legal's Mate
• Why Is Legal's Mate Important?
• Practice Your Skills
• Conclusion

What Is Legal's Mate?

Legal's Mate (also known as Legal's Trap) is a checkmate pattern that can end a game in fewer than 10 moves. This mating pattern is named after the French player Sire de Legall (but spelled with just one l), one of the best players of the 1700s. Legal's Mate involves a bishop and two knights, and it usually starts with a beautiful queen sacrifice:

How To Deliver Legal's Mate

Legal's Mate is common among beginners and usually arises against the Black player. Black tries to pin the white kingside knight to the queen using their bishop.

However, the pin is only illusory because of Legal's Mate. White can quickly force Black to unpin the knight by attacking it with a pawn.

If Black tries to maintain the pin, White is ready to play Legal's Mate! Thanks to the position of their minor pieces, White can give up the queen to uncork a gorgeous checkmate and win the game.

Why Is Legal's Mate Important?

Like many other checkmate patterns, learning Legal's Mate can be the difference between winning or losing a chess game. If you're unfamiliar with this pattern, this opening trap is easy to fall into. 

Pinning the knight to the queen seems like a great idea since you're developing a piece and seemingly restraining your opponent's army. It's also hard to see that White can actually sacrifice their queen, which makes Legal's Mate all the more dangerous.

However, once you've learned this pattern, spotting it during a game is much easier. 

It's also important to know some nuances of this pattern. Below, you can see how a player can use this pattern to win material even if their opponent doesn't fall for checkmate:

Practice Your Skills

Now that you know what Legal's Mate is, it's time for you to test your skills. Solve the puzzles below using what you learned in this article:

Puzzle 1

Puzzle 2

Puzzle 3

Conclusion

You now know what Legal's Mate is, how to deliver it, its importance, and more. Go to our Puzzles page and practice this and other tactical patterns to win more games!