Inchess,asmothered mateis acheckmatedelivered by aknightin which the matedkingis unable to move because it is completely surrounded (orsmothered) by its own pieces, which a knight can jump over.
The mate is usually seen in a corner of the board, since only three pieces are needed to surround the king there, less than anywhere else. The most common form of smothered mate is seen in the adjacent diagram. Theknighton f7 delivers mate to the king on h8, which is prevented from escaping thecheckby therookon g8 and the pawns on g7 and h7. Similarly, White can be mated with the white king on h1 and the knight on f2. Analogous mates on a1 and a8 are rarer becausekingsidecastlingis more common thanqueensidecastling and brings the king closer to the corner.
Methods
editFor a smothered mate to occur in a game, it is usually necessary tosacrificematerialto compel pieces to smother the king – a player is unlikely to voluntarily surround their king with pieces in a way that makes a smothered mate possible.
Philidor's mate
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Smothered mate after 27.Nf7+ Kg8 28.Nh6+ Kh8 29.Qg8+ Rxg8 30.Nf7#
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Philidor's mate, also known as Philidor's legacy, is a checkmating pattern that ends in smothered mate. This method involves checking with the knight forcing the king out of the corner of the board, moving the knight away to deliver adouble checkfrom thequeenand knight, sacrificing the queen to force therooknext to the king, and mating with the knight.
The technique is named afterFrançois-André Danican Philidor;this is something of a misnomer, however, as it is earlier described inLuis Ramirez Lucena's 1497 text on chess,Repetición de Amores e Arte de Axedrez,[1]which predates Philidor by several hundred years.[2]
An example is to be found in the gameJan Timman–Nigel Shortat the 1990Tilburgtournament. From the diagrammed position, play continued27. Nf7+ Kg8 28. Nh6+ Kh8 29. Qg8+ Rxg8 30. Nf7#.[3](Note that White would force mate even if his rook, and pawn on e7, were removed from the board, and Black had a knight on f6. In that case, 27.Nf7+ Kg8 28.Nh6+ Kh8 [28...Kf8 29.Qf7#] 29.Qg8+ Nxg8 [or 29...Rxg8] 30.Nf7 still mates.)
Opening traps
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Occasionally, a smothered mate may be possible in theopeningof a game. One of the most famous, and most frequently occurring, is in theBudapest Gambit.It arises after1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 Ng4 4. Bf4 Nc6 5. Nf3 Bb4+ 6. Nbd2 Qe7 7. a3 Ngxe5 8. axb4?? Nd3#(see diagram). Note that the knight cannot be taken because the pawn on e2 ispinnedto the white king by the black queen on e7.
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Another notorious example is the so-called "Blackburne Shilling Gambit"(named after the 19th-century English playerJoseph Henry Blackburne,supposedly because he used it to winshillingsfrom amateurs). It goes:1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nd4?! 4. Nxe5!? Qg5! 5. Nxf7?? Qxg2 6. Rf1 Qxe4+ 7. Be2 Nf3#(see diagram). There is also a well-known trap in theCaro–Kann Defence:1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Qe2!? Ngf6?? 6. Nd6#.This trap has occurred in many games, perhaps the earliest recorded example beingAlekhine–Four Amateurs,simultaneous exhibition,Palma de Mallorca1935.
Examples from games
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An example of a similar smothered mate inmaster-level play is the gameEdward Lasker–Israel Horowitz,New York City 1946, which went:1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. e3 c5 4. c4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 e5 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. Nc3 d4 8. exd4 exd4 9. Nb5 Bb4+ 10. Bd2 0-0 11. Bxb4 Nxb4 12. Nbxd4 Qa5 13. Nd2 Qe5+ 14. Ne2 Nd3#.[4]
Another example is the gameUnzicker–Sarapu,Siegen Olympiad 1970:1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e5 Nd5 4. Nc3 e6 5. Nxd5 exd5 6. d4 Nc6 7. dxc5 Bxc5 8. Qxd5 Qb6 9. Bc4 Bxf2+ 10. Ke2 0-0 11. Rf1 Bc5 12. Ng5 Nd4+ 13. Kd1 Ne6 14. Ne4 d6 15. exd6 Bxd6?? 16. Nxd6 Rd8 17. Bf4! Nxf4? 18. Qxf7+ Kh8 19. Qg8+![5]Sarapu nowresignedin light of 19...Rxg8 20.Nf7#.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^"Biblioteca Virtual del Patrimonio Bibliográfico > Búsqueda › Repetición de amores y Arte de ajedrez. [Inc. San Román".2008.
- ^Sonja Musser Golladay (2007).Los Libros de Acedrex Dados E Tablas: Historical, Artistic and Metaphysical Dimensions of Alfonso X's "Book of Games".pp. 278–.ISBN978-0-549-27434-6.
- ^"Timman vs. Short".Chessgames.
- ^"Lasker vs. Horowitz".Chessgames.
- ^"Unzicker vs. Sarapu".Chessgames.
Bibliography
- Hooper, David;Whyld, Kenneth(1994), "smothered mate",The Oxford Companion to Chess(2nd ed.),Oxford University Press,ISBN0-19-866164-9
- Golombek, Harry(1977),Golombek's Encyclopedia of Chess,Crown Publishing,ISBN0-517-53146-1
- “The Smothered Mate” by Edward Winter