Explanation

This checkmate is named after the novel "Anastasia und das Schachspiel" by Johann Jakob Wilhelm Heinse.

Examples

White can deliver Anastasia's mate with Rxh5#. The knight on e7 guards the escape squares on g8 and g6, and g7 is blocked by Black's pawn.

White can deliver Anastasia's mate with Re8#. The knight on f5 guards the escape square g7, and h7 is blocked by Black's pawn.

Anastasia's mate is very rare in the opening, as it takes some time to get a rook into the attack. But take a look at this example after only eleven moves:

Here my clubmate Bernd Klostermeyer gave Anastasia's mate with Rc8#.

Pattern matching

This mating pattern can often be achieved against a castled king by sacrificing on h7, if a knight on e7 guards g8 and g6.

Related patterns

In Vuković's mate, the rook gives checkmate, and the knight guards escape squares in a different pattern. In Arabian mate, the rook gives checkmate, and the knight protects the rook.