Smothered mate: the knight’s checkmate
A smothered mate is given by a knight to a king that cannot move because its own pieces surround it. The king is short of space not because of the attacker, but because of its friends.
Only a knight can do it: it jumps over the wall and gives a check that cannot be blocked.
The pattern
The king on h8 is surrounded by its own rook and pawns. A knight check from f7 cannot be blocked, and the king has no square to go to.
A trap in the opening
Smothered mate happens in the opening too. In the Caro-Kann, after 5.Qe2, a natural developing move loses at once: the pawn on e7 cannot take the knight, because the queen on e2 pins it to the king.
Philidor’s legacy
The most famous version uses a queen sacrifice. The queen gives check on g8, right next to the king; the rook has to take it and so closes the king’s last square itself. Then the knight mates. The combination is named after François-André Philidor, the great French master of the 18th century.
Exercise: mate in two
White to move and mate in two.
Make the move on the board: drag a piece, or click it and then a square.
Solved!
Qg8+! The king cannot take the queen, because the knight on h6 protects it, so the rook must: Rxg8. Now the king is boxed in by its own rook and pawns, and Nf7 is smothered mate.
Key points
- A smothered mate is a knight check against a king surrounded by its own pieces.
- Look for it when the enemy king sits in the corner behind its pawns and a rook.
- A queen sacrifice on g8 can force the defenders to block in their own king.