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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). As I said in The Early Smothered Mate, there are two typical smothered mates. The one you see here (sometimes called Philidor's mate) requires a sacrifice (nearly always a Queen sac) to complete the smother. Here are a few examples:
Bird - anonymous, London, 1886
1 e4 e5 2 f4 exf4 3 Nf3 g5 4 Nc3 g4
5 Ne5 Qh4+ 6 g3 fxg3 7 Qxg4 g2+ 8 Qxh4 gxh1Q 9 Qh5 Be7 10 Nxf7 Nf6 11 Nd6+ Kd8
12 Qe8+ Rxe8 13 Nf7++.
Fox - Hodges, New York 1937 (remove White's N from b1)
1 e4 d5 2
d4 Nf6 3 e5 Nfd7 4 e6 fxe6 5 Bd3 (planning 6 Qh5+ g6 7 Qxg6+) 5...Nf6 6
Nf3 Qd6 7 Ne5 Nbd7 8 Bf4 Qb4+ 9 c3 Qxb2 10 Qc2 Qxa1+? (10...Nxe5 -+) 11
Ke2 Qxh1? (11...Nxe5 -+) 12 Bg6+ hxg6 13 Qxg6+ Kd8 14 Nf7+ Ke8 15 Nd6+
Kd8 16 Qe8+ Nxe8 17 Nf7++.
Chodera - Pechmann, Prague 1910
1 e4 e5 2 Nc3 Bc5 3 g3 Nf6 4 Bg2
d6 5 Nge2 Nc6 6 d3 Be6 7 Na5 Qe2 8 Nxc5 dxc5 9 0-0 0-0-0 10 f4 c4 11 f5 cxd3 12
fxe6 dxe2 13 Qxe2 Nd4 14 Qf2 Ng4 15 Qxf7 Qc5 16 e7 Nf3+ 17 Kh1 Qg1+ 18 Rxg1
Nf2++
Capablanca - Mattison, Carlsbad 1929
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4
Qc2 c5 5 dxc5 Nc6 6 Nf3 Bxc5 7 Bf4 d5 8 e3 Qa5 9 Be2 Bb4 10 0-0 Bxc6 11 bxc6
0-0 12 Rab1! Qa3 13 Rfd1 b6 14 cxd5 Nxd5 15 Ng5! f5 16 Bf3! (threatens 17
Rxd5) 16...Qc5 17 c4! Ndb4 (17...Nxf4 18 Rb5 Qe7 19 Bxc6 +-) 18 Qb3
e5 19 a3! Nc6 20 Bxc6 1-0 (20...Qxc6 21 c5+ threatening smothered
mate).
Howell - Brunnemer, New York 1915
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 exd4 4
Bc4 Bc5 5 c3 Qf6 6 0-0 d6 7 Bg5 Qg6 8 cxd4 Nxd4 9 Nxd4 Qxg5 10 Kh1 Qe5 11 Nb5
Bb6 12 N1c3 a6 13 f4 Qc5 14 Na3 Nf6 15 e5 (15 Na4) 15...Ng4 16 Ne4 Qe3
17 Qc2 Bf5 18 Nxd6+? (18 Bxf7+) 18...cxd6 19 Qxf5? Qg1+ 20 Rxg1
Nf2++.
Morphy - anonymous, Paris 1859
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 d4
exd4 5 0-0 Nxe4 6 Re1 d5 7 Bxd5 Qxd5 8 Nc3 Qh5 9 Nxe4 Be6 10 Neg5 Bb4 11 Rxe6+
fxe6 12 Nxe6 Qf7 13 Nfg5 Qe7 14 Qe2 Bd6 15 Nxg7+ Kd6 16 Qg4+ Kd1 17 Nf7+ Qxf7
18 Bg5+ Be7? (18...Ne7 =) 19 Ne6+ Kc8? 20 Nc5+ Kb8 21 Nd7+ Kc8 22 Nb6+
Kb8 23 Qc8+ Rxc8 24 Nd7++.
Young - Dore', Boston 1892
1 e4 e5 2 d4 exd4 3 c3 dxc3 4 Bc4 Nf6 5
Nf3 Nxe4 6 0-0 Nd6 7 Nxc3 Nxc4 8 Re1+ Be7 9 Nd5 Nc6 10 Bg5 f6 11 Rc1 b5 12 Rxc4
bxc4 13 Ne5 fxg5? (13...Kf8!! -+) 14 Qh5+ g6 15 Nf6+ Bxf6 16 Nxg6+ Qe7
17 Rxe7+ Bxe7 18 Ne5+ (18 Nxh8+ is faster) 18...Kd8 19 Nf7+ Ke8 20 Nd6+
Kd8 21 Qe8+ Rxe8 22 Nf7++.