This book talks about

  • Introduction: How to play chess
    • Description of the Board & Pieces
    • Moving & Capturing
    • Special Moves: Castling, Pawn Promotion, Capturing En Passant
    • Piece Values: Pawn(1), Knight(3), Bishop(3.25), Rook(5), Queen(9), King(Infinity)
  • Chapter 1: Elements of Checkmate
    • Conditions of checkmate
    • Defenses: capturing, fleeing, interposing
    • Pins
    • Discovered checks
    • Mate in 1
  • Chapter 2: Back-Rank Mates
    • Useful/Useless Interposition
    • Amount of power needed to mate
  • Chapter 3: Back-Rank Defenses and Variations
    • Removing/Capturing the defenders
    • disconnected rooks

    • sideways back-rank
  • Chapter 4: Displacing Defenders
    • Drawing away defenders
    • Displacing the king
    • Displacing the king in 2 moves
    • Defense against displacement of king in 2 Moves
  • Chapter 5: Attacks on the enemy pawn cover
    • Sacrifice leading to mate

Chapter 6: Final Review

Mating Themes

  1. Elementary back-rank mate
  2. Back-rank combination (more power)
  3. Eliminating a back-rank defender, enemy recaptures using
  4. Rook/Queen
  5. King
  6. Drawing away a defender
  7. Driving away the enemy king
  8. Queen
  9. Bishop
  10. Knight
  11. Rook
  12. Queen sacrifice
  13. Rook mates
  14. Rook checks 1. enemy rook interposes, bishop mates 2. enemy piece interposes, back-rank combination
  15. Mating a hemmed-in King
  16. Hemming the king, sacrificing and mating

    The Defenses

  17. Capturing a checking piece with appropriate piece
  18. Interposing
  19. King fleeing

    Pins

  20. Pinned piece cannot capture
  21. However it can support a checkmate