Mate Maker

2026

You do not wait for resignations. A large share of your wins ended with checkmate on the board.

What a Mate Maker is

A Mate Maker finishes the job. Attacks go all the way to the king, and many of their games end with mate rather than with an opponent who gives up. Sometimes it is a sharp tactical style, sometimes a level where players rarely resign, sometimes simply a love of the final move. Whatever the reason, the year is full of kings with nowhere to go. A Mate Maker's favourite moment of the game is the one where there is nothing left for the other side to try.

How Chess Year spots it

Chess Year counts the wins that ended in checkmate. When at least 35% of your wins were checkmates you delivered, Mate Maker qualifies, and the higher the share, the stronger it is. It needs at least 10 wins in the year to count, and at least 20 games in total like every personality. With 100 wins, 35 or more checkmates are enough.

What your story shows

The endings card shows how many of your games ended in checkmate compared with resignations, time and draws. The highlights card finds your fastest mate, the game you won by checkmate in the fewest moves, with a link to open it on Chess.com or Lichess. The personality card shows the queen that stands for the Mate Maker. Comparing the checkmate share with the resignation share is the quickest way to see the style.

Close relatives

A player who wins on the clock as often as on the board can come out as a Clock Assassin, and an aggressive player who also climbs a lot may be a Climber. Each personality is scored against its own line and the strongest one names your year. Draws, losses and timeouts do not count against a Mate Maker; only the share of wins matters.