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© Copyright 2002, Jim Loy
A smothered mate is a mate by a Knight with the victim's King completely surrounded by his own pieces (and the edge of the board). There are two typical smothered mates. The one you see here happens out of the blue, and can happen very early in the game. The other (which I will illustrate in a later article) requires a sacrifice (nearly always a Queen sac) to complete the smother. Here are a few of the first variety:
Keres-Arlamovsky, Szczawno-Zdroj 1950
1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 dxe4 4
Nxe4 Nd7 5 Qe2 Ngf6 6 Nd6++
Dudkin-Skitin, USSR 1967
1 d4 d5 2 c4 e5 3 dxe5 d4 4 Nf3 Nc6 5
Nbd2 Qe7 6 a3 Nxe5 7 Nxd4 Nd3++
Muhlock-Kostics, Cologne 1912
1 e4 e4 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nd4 4 Nxe5
Qg5 5 Nxf7 Qxg2 6 Rf1 Qxe4+ 7 Be2 Nf3++
Alekhine-allies, Palma 1935 simul.
1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 dxe4 4
Nxe4 Nf6 5 Bd3 Qxd4 6 Nf3 Qd8 7 Qe2 Nbd7 8 Nd6++
amateur-Canal, 1935 simul.
1 e4 e5 2 Ne2 d5 3 exd5 Qxd5 4 Nbc3 Qa5
5 d4 Nc6 6 d5 Nb4 7 Bd2 Bf5 8 Rc1 Bxc2 9 Rxc2 Nd3++
Edward Lasker-I.A.Horowitz, New York 1946
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++
Such a mate can occur in other parts of the board, especially a corner. The following are not smothered mates (they involve a double check), but they are similar to the above mates:
Meek-amateur, New Orleans 1855
1 e4 e5 2 f4 exf4 3 Nf3 d5 4 Nc3
dxe4 5 Nxe4 Bg4 6 Qe2 Bxf3 7 Nf6++
Miller-Chernev, New York 1935
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 exd4 4 Nxd4
Nf6 5 Bg5 Be7 6 Nf5 d5 7 exd5 Ne5 8 Nxe2 Qxe2 9 Bxf6 Nf3++