Practice the Swallow Tail's and the Dovetail's Mate here!
The Swallow Tail and the Dovetail
Introduction
Because both checkmate patterns are related to birds, I thought I would do them together. I don't know how much you like (or dislike) birds, (personally I like them), but I can guarantee you that you definitely like these two birds after the blog (well, at least the checkmate patterns themselves). So without further ado, let's begin!
The Swallow Tail
This is the swallow. (It's a really beautiful bird) As you can see, one characteristic of this bird is that its 'tail' is forked into two, and the head is fluffy and orange, making it look cute (totally irrelevant 
). I personally like this bird much more than the dovetail, and this bird is also much cuter than the dovetail.
Okay, don't know why I wrote the above paragraph, but now I really must start introducing the checkmate pattern. The swallowtail mate's characteristic is very similar to the characteristic of the swallowtail. In the checkmate pattern, the queen is touching the king directly, but instead of the kiss of death, where the king is on the edge of the chessboard, the king here in the swallowtail, is blocked by two of its friendly pieces, which should be placed a knight's distance away from the queen, so that the king cannot escape to its diagonals, and resulting in checkmate. (It's also why the checkmate is called the swallowtail, as all the pieces are put in a shape resembling a swallowtail) In case you're confused, here is the basic checkmate pattern of the swallowtail.
This checkmate pattern is really similar to the Epaulette Mate, if you haven't noticed, and the concept is pretty much the same. The queen on f5 is directly touching the king on f6, while the bishop on c2 is protecting the queen from getting captured by the king. As all chess players know, when the queen is touching the queen as above, the only escape squares are the squares a knight's distance away from the queen. But because those squares are taken away by the Black king's friendly pieces, this would be checkmate.
The Dovetail
This checkmate pattern is actually pretty similar to the swallowtail mate, except that it is a slanted version of it. Again, there must be pieces limiting the king's movement to a knight's distance away from the king. But this time, the queen is touching the king diagonally, and again, since the escape squares of a knight's distance away from the queen are taken away, the king is checkmated. Here is an example of the dovetail mate.
As you can see the queen on c5 is supported by the knight behind, and it takes away all the king's escape squares while also delivering the checkmate blow. And because when the queen touches the king, the king can only move to the squares a knight's distance away and here those squares are taken by the bishop and pawn, the king is mated.
For both checkmates, be mindful of those two friendly pieces! One time one friendly piece was a knight, and you can't imagine how sad the player was! Of course, if it's pinned then it's fine, but just don't be careless and blunder! A knight could just capture the queen! (This is one strength of the knight, it's movements are unique)
Puzzle Time! How fast can you solve the puzzles below?
Puzzle 1a (Difficulty: 1/5): Let's start things off! It's White's turn, but White is down a lot of material! How can White bring home the win despite of the material disadvantage?
Puzzle 1b (Difficulty: 1/5): Let's have a look at the same position, but this time, it's Black's turn! Even though Black is about to get checkmated, how can Black use his material advantage to checkmate White first?
Puzzle 3 (Difficulty: 2/5): White is about to get checkmated! How can White turn the tables around to checkmate Black?
Puzzle 4 (Difficulty: 2/5): Black is currently up material, but White is totally winning with a checkmate opportunity! Checkmate Black!
Puzzle 6a (Difficulty: 3/5) Uh oh! Black is currently down a whole rook and a pawn! But Black is totally winning here! How can Black win with a checkmate if White is unwilling to sacrifice some material?
Puzzle 7 (Difficulty: 3/5): White is close to being checkmated, but Black is too! How can White gain the advantage of being his turn to move and checkmate Black?
Puzzle 7A (Difficulty: 2/5): It's White's turn and White can checkmate Black in 5 moves. But assuming that Black plays badly and speeds up the process. How can White checkmate Black in 2 if Black plays poorly?
Puzzle 8: The material is pretty balanced here, but Black's king is way too exposed. How can White take advantage of this and checkmate Black?
I hope you enjoyed the puzzles! Should you enjoy or disliked the puzzles or have any other comments, feel free to jot a note down in the comments, and I hope I would be able to see them and reply and improve. Stay around next week as we continue on our checkmate series! Have a happy Friday!
