Fool's Mate
The fastest possible checkmate in chess, delivered in just two moves.
Fool's Mate occurs only if White makes highly weakening pawn moves and Black is able to deliver checkmate with the queen on the second move; it requires cooperation from White and is essentially never seen outside of demonstration.
Etymology
The name is a piece of English chess-literary humour: Wikipedia states that Fool's mate received its name because it can occur only if White commits an extraordinary blunder, so the losing side is cast as the fool. It was named and described in The Royal Game of Chess-Play, a 1656 text by Francis Beale that adapted the work of the early chess writer Gioachino Greco, whose manuscripts date from around 1620; Beale's original text uses the spelling The Fooles Mate. The best-known move order is 1.f3 e6 2.g4 Qh4 checkmate, and there are eight distinct move orders producing the same mate. One historical caveat matters for reproducing Beale accurately: before the mid-19th century there was no convention that White moves first, and in Beale's own example Black moves first. The name has parallel forms in other chess literatures but the English coinage traces to the Beale text.
First documented: 1656 — Francis Beale, The Royal Game of Chess-Play (1656), adapting Gioachino Greco (c. 1620), where the mate is named The Fooles Mate
Translations
Translations for this term haven't been added yet.