Rating : 5/5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 – BEST course on Checkmates you will find on Chessable! 💪😊👍😍😁😉

I was a beta tester who had the pleasure to go through many parts of this course. I got intrigued by the simplicity and the completeness of the course that I went on to study more than 70% (72% to be exact) of the course!😉😋

This course is a real GEM on Checkmates!😍

Just look at the Variation Details sidebar and quiz yourself with the Checkmates you know of? I, an FM, didn’t know around 10 of them! (I learned 10 new checkmates!😍😁💪🙌👍)

My favourite Checkmate is the ‘David & Goliath Checkmate’! It is like a pawn checkmate – pawn (underdog) checkmates the King (King!!) 😍

The course has an ‘Indice’ in which all the Mating Patterns/Puzzles have been neatly linked! Even the players’ names mentioned in the course (from A-Z) have been linked to the corresponding puzzle! 😍😎👌

There is also a timeline which says ‘Till what year was the player active?’ – For example ; if it is Blackburne’s Mate, the course says the following :

1841-1924 : Joseph Henry Blackburne – Blackburne’s mate

This is done for all the players who contributed to the naming of that specific mate! 😍👏

All right, let’s get down to CHECKMATES!

Before the beginning of puzzles in each chapter, there is an Informational which talks about the Mating Pattern and the corresponding position shows the Mate! This is done for all Mates/Chapters! Most of the times when there are different versions of the same mate, Raf clearly talks about this nuance in a different informational in the respective chapter hence the naming of the informational lines in the most of the chapters as, for example, Boden’s Mate 1, Boden’s Mate 2, etc. and the corresponding trainables present this type of mate mentioned.😊👌👏🙌

Above all of this, the course comes with 2 new badges!! 😍😍

All this for only 10$, available only on Chessable! 😊😃

After Raf finished creating all the puzzles, he could’ve just pushed that Publish button but he wanted the course to be top-top-notch so he went on to create ‘Indices!’ and stuff and he even proof-read the course multiple times👏. This shows his dedication as an author and how much respect he has for his students! Great job Raf!! 😃💪👍😍😊👏👏👌

Add this book to your Chessable Library and let us all Checkmate (our opponents) together with Raf!💪

This is the most complete and instructive course on checkmate patterns I’ve ever studied. It is clearly a work of love and dedication. I’m super happy to have this on Chessable and will continue to study this course until I dream of these patterns in my sleep. Superlychee and Skkeyan’s reviews say it all. Just wanted to add my congratulations to you, Raf. The nearly 400 hours of hard work you put in to create this masterpiece paid off. Geert / Publishing Manager

Surprised how much I did not know
I am something around 2000 Fide player who has not played a competitive game in over 4 years and picked up chess again during the lockdown.I love this course. I was reluctant to buy it, as I felt like checkmate patterns are not something I would be struggling with. However, I decided to give it a shot, expecting it to return it after I try it and see how good at checkmates I am. Little did I know…

After scoring full marks from the basic test, everything was going according to my plans. Then I started looking at the theory behind all those checkmates and I found quite a few exercises I got wrong (some of them multiple times), even though I knew what kind of pattern I should be looking for.

Therefore, I can say I will definitely be keeping this course. And I would advise everyone bellow 2k to give it a shot. You might as well return it within 30 days. But I find it more likely that you will learn a thing or two about your checkmating abilities that you might not be too happy to admit 🙂

PROS: – a lot of material covered – exercises for all levels – my new favorite chess “fast-food” – using chessable format well

CONS: -not really a course problem, but a bit of a chessable “problem” (which I don’t think can be fixed easily). When cycling through the theoretical exercises while reviewing, you get all the same patterns grouped together, making it a bit less challenging. Would be nice to be able to randomize the order.

Wow! After finishing this course, I might easily say, «Time well spent!» I can undoubtedly see myself winning more blitz games by recognizing mating motifs faster. Perhaps a successor to this could be «Defending against mating motifs» ? Just the same kind of idea, but from the defending point of view, how to successfully defend against different mating motifs, once they appear. How to minimize losses or avoid being mated.

5-Star Plus Amazing course. 5 stars and now with the video added, 5 stars plus! This is a relatively brief review since there are already so many 5 star reviews and I pretty much agree with everything that has been said. I wanted to add a review after watching the recently added video by IM John Bartholomew. Speaking as a fellow user here. I had previously purchased “The Checkmate Patterns Manual” course and now have added the video upgrade. I loved the original course by CraftyRaf, but with the added video by JB, it is even more amazing. I feel the video upgrade is well worth the added cost. IM John Bartholomew really adds worthwhile value to the course, explaining defenses that could be used in certain positions and subtle differences in positions where the checkmate pattern works in one case, but not another. For me, seeing and hearing the explanation makes it stick in my head better much better than just reading the text or solving the quizzes alone. Plus, John adds in a lot of the history behind the original source games for these patterns which is not only fun to know, but helps with remembering the pattern. Overall, excellent quality video, very enjoyable to watch, and adding value to the already outstanding course. 5 stars plus!!!

Just WOW! Guys, this is the best book I’ve bought on this platform. I’m only halfway through and I’ve learned such a lot. I see the patterns in my games all of a sudden. If not, I try to create them.My online rating is currently 1450. This is an ideal book for beginners. I also bought a tactics book and this book makes it easier for me spot mating combinations and creating mating webs. I got it for $14.99, a 25% discount. Best money I’ve spent on this site.