Smothered mate on Chess Teaching

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Smothered mate

Posted on October 31st, 2007 by Chess Teacher

In a smothered mate the mated king is unable to move because he is surrounded (or smothered) by his own pieces. Therefor a smothered mate can only be delivered by a knight. We have seen an example of a smothered mate before in the lesson about the Blackburne Shilling Gambit.

Black to move
Position after move 30
1 half-move after last pawn advance or capture

This lesson deals with the most common form of smothered mate as shown by the diagram on the left side. The knight delivers mate to the king which is prevented from escaping the check by the rook and the pawns.

As an illustrative example the game Jan Timman - Nigel Short at the 1990 Tilburg tournament is given.

White to move

Tilburg

1.d4 e6 2.c4 f5 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 d5 6.O-O O-O 7.b3 Bd7 8.Ba3 Nc6 9.Qc1 a5 10.Bxe7 Qxe7 11.Nc3 Be8 12.Qe3 dxc4 13.bxc4 Rd8 14.Rfd1 Ng4 15. Qf4 Bf7 16.Rab1 e5 17.dxe5 Rxd1+ 18.Rxd1 Qc5 19.Ng5 Bxc4 20.Nd5 Nd8 21.e6 Bxd5 22.Rxd5 Qa3 23.Rd7 Nc6 24.Bxc6 bxc6 25.e7 Re8

Here White is able to force Black in a very well known position.

This is one of the most common examples of a smothered mate. We have to check with the knight 27.Nf7+ Kg8

Now we move the knight away, double checking the king 28.Nh6+ Kh8

Sacrifice the queen in order to force the rook next to the king 29.Qg8+ Rxg8

and mate with the knight 30.Nf7# 1-0

Try to learn these last moves very good.

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Tags: Chess, Endgame, Game.
Categories: Chess lessons, Intermediate 2 //

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