A recurring theme

I've posted many times about my 'favourite' mate pattern, that of the Arabian and Anastasia's Mate.

I'm not sure why this particular pattern of Knight/Rook or Knight/Queen appeals, but there is no denying that it does.

The below problem turned up in ChessTempo a while ago and although its not a difficult one ( the blitz rating is 1472, the standard is 1170) when the last move dawned on me, it brought a smile to my face :)


Here is is below, with the solution if required, although you know the pattern to aim for.

White to play : Mate in 3

One of the comments to it was "I want to do this in a game" : don't we all !

But I came close in a recent blitz game.

Here was a position where I had repeated the Knight checks (Ne7+, Kg8, Kf8, Ng6) , mainly to gain time as I had about 3 seconds on the clock, but also because my old brain didn't see a quick win easily enough.

But its blitz, you can try anything, crazy or not, and you may not have a perfectly measured responsefrom your opponent

I played the very wrong Rxe6+ ??  

I wouldn't do this in a standard game, since clearly the Black Queen capturing the Rook is a win for Black...

..but Black obliged me with fxe, allowing a nice finish !

 A "lucky" blitz win , but there again, you have to see a pattern to aim for.