Weak back rank tag: What exactly does it mean?

[mbickley]

Hello, I've been on this site before (forgot my account) and I've run across the weak-back rank tag (and the back rank mate tag) and I've never been completely sure which situations nessecitate which tag.  Could somebody help me here 

[richard]

Hi mbickley,

The weak-back rank tag was introduced to deal with the situation where a tactic exists due to the threat of a back rank mate, but a back rank mate does not actually occur.  Back rank mate tag is just for positions where back rank mate does actually occur.

This is a bit inconsistent as other tags such as fork etc could also use the same differentiation, it seems quite common to have a tactic appear due to the threat of a fork without the fork actually appearing (and the same is true for other tactical motifs).

Regards,
Richard.

[mbickley]

Thanks for the reply, thats what I guessed!  However, it seems to be unoffically adopted as "a back rank mate, but not all the squares on the 7th rank occupied by black pawns/pieces"

That seemed awfully silly to me.

[richard]

Hi mbickley ,

Tagging inconsistencies from person to person can be annoying.  My long promised, but not yet delivered (it's coming , really!!), "Tag descriptions" document should help somewhat in clarifying to everyone exactly what situations each tag is describing.

Regards,
Richard.