Chess Tactics: Smothered Mate is possible on full board also

Filed under Chess Tutorials

You have mostly seen the theme of Philidor’s position in action in our discussions on smothered mate, but we pointed out that such mate can occur during the opening phases also with the King in the center when that player handles his pieces badly or deviates from established lines without sufficient thoughts behind such moves.

First we show one more example of how the lines can be cleared to create Philidor’s position for the final Knight check.

another Philidor's position

Here the Black King has already closeted himself and all White needs is to deliver a Knight check from f7, but the Bishop and the Queen are standing in the way. So White finds the move to kill two birds with one stone!

1. Rxe6! Qxe6   White could also win after this with 2. Rxh7+ Kxh7 3. Ng5+ to capture the Queen …
 
2. Ng5 Qg6   … but he wanted a more direct route and planned to force the Queen away to guard against 3. Rxh7#
 
3. Rxh7+ Qxh7   The hapless Queen now smothers the King!
4. Nf7#  

 

You have seen enough to be able to identify such positions and exploit those to add to the repository of such examples! Now we show how inaccurate play can lead to smothered mate quite early in the game. In the following game with Black playing Budapest Gambit (Fajarowicz Variation), White mixed up his opening lines and went astray. The result is a short game with Black delivering a smothered mate with almost a full board!

This is how it happened.

1. d4 Nf6  
2. c4 e5  
3. dxe5 Ne4  
4. a3 Nc6  
5. Nf3 a5  

 

smothered in opening

6. Nbd2 Nc5   White needed to play 6. Qc2
7. b3 Qe7  
8. Bb2 d6  
9. exd6? Nd3#  

 

If you think that White played badly, what will you say about the way the four allies played against Alekhine at Palma in 1935? It is something similar to above example with colors reversed.

1. e4 c6  
2. d4 d5  
3. Nc3 dxe4  
4. Nxe4 Nd7  
5. Qe2 Ngf6?  
6. Nd6#  

 

The final position:

fig133

Considering that four players were consulting to choose their move, it is unbelievable, isn’t it? Or is it a case of too many cooks…?

Note: These positions were taken from a book by Chernev & Reinfeld.

 

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