Scholar's mate Scholar's mate In chess, Scholar's Mate is the checkmate achieved by the following moves, or similar: The same mating pattern may be reached by various move orders. For example, White might play 2.Qh5, or Black might play 2...Bc5. In all variations, the basic idea is the same: the queen and bishop combine in a simple mating attack on f7 (or f2 if Black is performing the mate). Scholar's Mate is sometimes referred to as the "Four-Move Checkmate", although there are other ways to checkmate in four moves. Unlike Fool's Mate, which rarely occurs at any level, games ending in Scholar's
Ideal mate chess games, excepting some basic checkmates (such as king and rook against a lone king), but ideal mates are a common theme in chess problems, like the one at right. Ideal mate In chess, an ideal mate is a checkmate position that is a special form of model mate. While in a model mate, each piece on the mating player's side (possibly excluding the king and pawns depending on context) participates in the mate, an ideal mate involves all the pieces of the mated player's as well, typically by blocking the mated king's field of movement so that it cannot