Mate Me

Welcome to Mate Me

Chess is a game of patterns, calculation, and problem solving. The more positions you work through, the more you start to recognize those patterns when they show up again.

That's the idea behind Mate Me: solve a lot of chess problems and get better at seeing the solution.

Mate Me was designed to make that practice simple. Each book gives you hundreds of chess problems to work through, arranged to become progressively more challenging as you go.

One board. One problem. Find the mate.

There are no pieces to move and no computer waiting to tell you whether your first idea was right. Study the position, consider the possibilities, and calculate the solution before turning to the answer.

That matters.

Solving from a static board forces you to calculate instead of click. You have to visualize the moves, anticipate the defense, and work out the continuation yourself rather than relying on trial and error.

The computer isn't moving the pieces for you.

Your brain has to.

And because this is the print edition, there's nothing between you and the position. No screen, no app, and no notifications. Just a chessboard on the page and a problem waiting to be solved.

Take your time. Calculate as far as you need to. If you aren't sure, look again before checking the solution. Some problems will come quickly. Others may take a while. That's part of the process.

That's what Mate Me is about: a simple way to work through a lot of chess problems, one at a time, at your own pace.

Study the board. Calculate the moves. Find the mate.

About This Book

Book 4 is where the Mate Me series starts asking you to calculate quite a bit further.

The problems in this book range from approximately 1350 to 1850 and are arranged to get harder as you go. The ratings use the Glicko-2 rating system and are based on how difficult the problems have been for people to solve.

Every problem in Book 4 is Mate in Four: you need to find four moves to deliver checkmate. Your opponent will make a move after each of your first three moves, so you'll need to anticipate those responses and follow the entire sequence through to checkmate.

At this point, simply spotting a familiar mating pattern usually isn't enough. You'll need to work out how to get there.

The early problems start around the 1350 level. Many still have forcing ideas that can point you in the right direction, but you'll need to follow those ideas through several moves and make sure the opponent doesn't have a way out.

As you move through the book, there may be more candidate moves to consider, more defensive resources, and more opportunities to lose track of the position. Sometimes the hardest part isn't seeing the final checkmate. It's finding the first move that makes that position possible several moves later.

By the end of the book, you'll be working on problems approaching the 1850 level.

This is where visualization becomes increasingly important. Try to calculate the entire line from the printed board before checking the solution. If a line doesn't work, go back to the original position and try another idea rather than guessing.

The ratings still aren't grades or estimates of your playing rating. A position rated 1500 can sometimes feel harder than one rated 1700 depending on which patterns you recognize and which ones you don't.

By the time you reach the end of Book 4, hopefully longer combinations won't feel quite as intimidating as they did at the beginning.

When you're ready to push your calculation even further, move on to Book 5.