Fool's mate Fool's mate In chess, Fool's Mate, also known as the Two-Move Checkmate, is the checkmate in the fewest possible number of moves from the start of the game. This can be achieved only by Black, who can deliver checkmate on move 2 with the queen. Fool's Mate received its name because it can only occur if White commits an extraordinary blunder. Even among rank beginners, the mate almost never occurs in practice. An example of Fool's Mate consists of the moves: resulting in the position shown. The pattern can have slight variations; Black could play ...e6 or ...e5, and White
Late Move Reductions Late Move Reductions In computer chess, and in other games that computers play, Late Move Reductions (LMR) is a non-game specific enhancement to the alpha-beta algorithm and its variants which attempts to examine a game search tree more efficiently. It uses the assumption that good game-specific move ordering causes a program to search the most likely moves early. If a cut-off is going to happen in a search, the first few moves are the ones most likely to cause them. In games like chess, most programs search winning captures and "killers" first. LMR will reduce the search depth for moves