Pillsbury's mate is a checkmate where a rook gives the check and a bishop takes away the king's escape square. The rook does the attacking along a file or rank, and the bishop, often from far across the board, shuts the one door the king had left. Every puzzle on this page ends in Pillsbury's mate, comes from a real game and is close to your puzzle rating. Solving them moves the same rating as Puzzle Training.
The textbook version has Black's king on g8 with its own rook on f8 and pawns on f7 and h7, and the g-pawn gone. White has a bishop on b2, looking down the long diagonal, and a rook on e1. 1.Rg1 is checkmate. The rook checks down the open g-file, which also covers g7. The bishop covers h8. The rook on f8 and the pawns on f7 and h7 fill the remaining squares.
The long diagonal is everything here. Put a black pawn on d4 in the same position and 1.Rg1+ is only a check, because the bishop no longer reaches h8 and the king walks into the corner.
Pillsbury's mate is not only about the g-file. The rook can give mate along the back rank while the bishop covers the square the king was meant to escape to. That makes it a trap for players who think making luft has fixed their back rank.
Take Black's king on g8 with pawns on f7, g7 and h6, a rook on d8 and a queen on b6. White has rooks on d1 and d2 and a bishop on c2. White plays 1.Rxd8+, and Black's only legal move is 1...Qxd8, because h7 is covered by the bishop. Then 2.Rxd8 is checkmate. The pawn move to h6 was supposed to give the king h7, but the bishop on the diagonal from c2 to h7 has taken it. Without that bishop, Black could answer 1.Rxd8+ with 1...Kh7, and even after 1...Qxd8 2.Rxd8+ the king escapes to h7.
The two are easy to mix up, because both use a rook and a bishop against a king near the corner. The difference is which piece gives check. In Pillsbury's mate the rook checks and the bishop covers the flight square. In Morphy's mate the bishop checks and the rook covers the flight square. It also differs from the Opera mate, where the bishop's job is to protect the rook from capture rather than to cover a square.
Keep an eye on long diagonals that point at the squares around your king, especially h8 and h7, or a8 and a7 on the other side. Blocking the diagonal with a pawn, or exchanging the bishop, often removes the danger. Keep files next to your king closed while enemy rooks are active, and make sure your escape square is truly free before you rely on it. A square covered by a bishop is not an escape.
In each puzzle, list the king's flight squares, then ask which enemy bishop could cover the one that is left. When the answer is yes, the rook check usually follows. If you are stuck, the hint shows which piece to move first, then the move. After you solve, the full line appears beside the board. Pillsbury's mate often finishes a mate in 2, and it builds directly on back rank mate puzzles.
For mixed tactics at your level, use Puzzle Training. For speed, try Puzzle Storm, and to repeat a fixed set until it is automatic, the Woodpecker Method. Elo Maxing rates you on every tactical motif and serves the weakest next, and Pattern Drill builds practice from the patterns your own games show you miss. To see how often your games turn on a missed mate, read how to find your chess weaknesses.
A checkmate where a rook gives check and a bishop covers the king's escape square, typically a rook on the g-file and a bishop on the long diagonal covering h8.
Yes. Both names describe the same rook and bishop pattern.
In Pillsbury's mate the rook gives check and the bishop covers the flight square. In Morphy's mate the bishop gives check and the rook covers the flight square.
Not always. If an enemy bishop covers the square you made for your king, a rook check on the back rank can still be mate.