Mating Patterns I
Mate with Bishop and Rook
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Patterns or motifs are the cornerstone of chess knowledge. Learning them is essential to improved tactical and combinative ability, just as memorizing basic math is essential to performing more advanced equations. The basic motifs, especially mating patterns, also serve as a paradigm for the aquisition of further knowledge; in a sense, their study teaches students how to learn chess. The mate with Bishop and Rook fits well with an introduction to "The Chess Instructor's Favorite Game": Morphy vs. the Duke and the Count at the Paris Opera House (our first example below). Looking at these patterns in the context of actual games helps to integrate that knowledge with other chess ideas.
The problems below range from easy to very difficult (for beginners anyway). Seeing the pattern is the key to the solution, though in the most advanced problems it is not necessarily the solution itself. Enjoy!
Paul Morphy - The Duke and the Count [C41]
At the Paris Opera House/Paris 1858
but White is still winning.
17. 
