Most beautiful checkmates? What is the most beautiful checkmate you've ever seen in high-level play? The beauty might be caused by one of the following:


A brilliant setup (the couple moves preceding the mate were brilliant)
Totally unexpected/against the odds (for example, the other opponnent was up a lot of material)
Swiftness (of course no fool's mate or such)
etc.
Check the list of Immortal games listed here :http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1000589

Especially enjoyed Paul Morphy vs Duke Karl : http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1233404

and Lev Polugaevsky vs Rashid Gibiatovich Nezhmetdinov (this is simply stunning): http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1111459