Fool's mate, also known as the Two-Move Checkmate, is the checkmate in the fewest possible number of moves from the start of the game. This can be achieved only by Black, who can deliver checkmate on move 2 with the queen. Fool's Mate received its name because it can only occur if White commits and extraordinary blunder. Even among rank beginners, the mate almost never occurs in practice.
An example of Fool's Mate consists of the moves:
1. f3 e5
2. g4?? Qh4#
Resulting in the position shown. The pattern can have slight variations; Black could play ...e6 or ...e5, and White could play f4 rather than f3. Additionally the order in which White advances their f- and g-pawns could be alternated.
Similar mating patterns can occur early in the game. For example, in 1. e4 g5 2. d4 f6?? 3. Qh5#, the basic Fool's Mate pattern is the same: a player advances their f- and g-pawns, which permits the enemy queen to mate along the unblocked diagonal. One such Fool's Mate is widely reported to have occurred in a possibly apocryphal 1959 game between Masefield and Trinka, which lasted just three moves: 1. e4 g5 2. Nc3 f5?? 3. Qh5#. A similar mate can occur in From's Gambit: 1. f4 e5 2. g3? exf4 3. gxf4?? Qh4#.
Teed vs Delmar
A well-known trap in the Dutch Defense ocurred in the game Frank Melville Teed - Eugene Delmar, 1896:
1. d4 f5 2. Bg5 h6 3. Bf4 g5 4. Bg3 f4.
It seems that Black has won the bishop, but now comes... 5. e3
Threating Qh5#, a basic Fool's Mate.
