Off The Wall Chess - The Fate of Smothered Mate
Submitted by
on Thu, 09/06/2007 at 7:31pm.
Pulling off a smothered mate by sacrificing your Queen, then mating with a lone Knight is a great acccomplishment if you can do it. But if it happens to you, then you feel pretty stupid. Well, over the years I have pulled off a smothered mate or two, but never had it done to me, until this game. I guess I wasn't paying attention. I exposed my King, my pieces were threatened with a Knight fork, and my pieces were diverted elsewhere. Suddenly, there was the check with the Queen, then a check with the Knight, then the discovered check as the Knight moves, then the Queen sac, then the final mate with the Knight as my King became smothered in the back rank. Don't let this happen to you.