Basic checkmatesStep 5 of 6
The smothered mate
The only mate where the loser is killed by his own pieces — and the queen sacrifice that sets it up.
The prettiest mate in chess, and the only one where the loser is killed by his own pieces.
A king surrounded by his defenders has no escape square. The knight, meanwhile, jumps over everybody. A knight checking a fully surrounded king is mate, even with the whole enemy army standing around him.
The full mechanism is called Philidor’s legacy, and it is worth seeing end to end: it finishes with a queen sacrifice.
Demonstration — use the arrows
Use the ← and → arrow keys, or click a move in the list.
Move list
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
It is exactly the idea behind Légal’s mate: a knight mating a king with too many of his own pieces around him.
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