Morphy’s Mate is a checkmate pattern involving a Rook and a Bishop. It is commonly seen when your opponent castles King-side and the pawn in front of the King is removed. One of your Rooks then slides over putting the enemy King in check and a Bishop then covers the corner square the enemy King would otherwise be able to move to.
Example
This example is from the game in 1887 between John Owen and Amos Burn.
The pawn in front of Black’s King is removed and White’s Rook delivers the initial Check. White’s dark squares Bishop then takes the Knight delivering checkmate with the King trapped by the Rook.
After learning this pattern, you can start to see how this is possible to implement in more complex board positions. Using a sacrifice is common tactic for removing the defender, a pawn, in front of the enemy King after castling short side.
I hope this guide on Morphy’s mate helped you. If you liked this post, you may also be interested in other checkmate patterns like Anastasia’s Mate and the Boden’s Mate.