Back Rank Mate

Jack,

On Christmas Eve, at your grandparents' house, I won a game of chess that we played that ended with a back rank mate.  You might have known that's what it was called--I had to look it up.  Wikipedia defines it as:

In chess, a back-rank checkmate (also known as the corridor mate) is a checkmate delivered by a rook or queen along a back rank (that is, the row on which the pieces [not pawns] stand at the start of the game) in which the mated king is unable to move up the board because the king is blocked by friendly pieces (usually pawns) on the second rank (Burgess 2009:16). 


You got pretty upset when you lost--which I actually like, because I want you to remember how bad it feels to lose so that you always want to win.  I was a bit frustrated with you though, and maybe a little tougher on you than I should have been because you weren't paying attention to our game.  You were talking trash, asking why I was taking so long to move, turning away to do something else during my move, etc.  You were also up a queen very early in the game because I missed a trap (a pin or a fork or whatever--I have no idea what the names of the traps/tactics are, but I know that you're always trying to do them to me in our games).  

Wikipedia also says that:
Back-rank mates occur quite often in games at fairly low levels. This is because beginners typically fail to anticipate an impending mate on the back rank. At higher levels of play, though the mate itself does not occur very often, play is often affected by the possibility of it—the fact that a player has to spend time guarding against the mate may leave him vulnerable to other threats and tactical ideas.

March 27. 2020

I'm just looking back on what I wrote many years ago.  I don't remember exactly what life lessons what I was trying to teach you.  My best guess after all these years is that I wanted you to respect the game and your opponent, don't underestimate your opponent, and learn from your mistakes.  I also wanted you to know that I wasn't ever going to let you win just to make you feel good about yourself, and that when you finally beat me, it was fair and square and I was trying my best.