The Smothered Mate
also known as: Philidor's Legacy
Named after
The finishing sequence (Qg8+!! Rxg8, Nf7#) is called "Philidor's Legacy" after François-André Danican Philidor — though, in a twist worthy of the Lucena Position, the mate predates him by centuries.
Origin
Described by Luis Ramírez de Lucena in 1497 — the oldest printed chess book actually DOES contain this one — and known to Arabic shatranj players before that.
The story
The most theatrical checkmate in chess: a lone knight kills a king that its own army has buried alive. The full sequence is a small opera in three acts — the knight gives a discovered double check (the only escape is the corner), the queen hurls herself onto g8 in a sacrifice that CANNOT be declined (the rook must take), and the knight hops to f7 to mate a king now sealed in by its own rook and pawns. Lucena printed it in 1497; Greco made it his signature swindle in the 1620s, luring opponent after opponent into the same trap; and somewhere along the way posterity attached Philidor's name to the finish. Five hundred years later it still lands in blitz games every day, and delivering one's first smothered mate remains a rite of passage — the moment a player discovers that in chess, your own pieces can be the walls of your tomb.
Why it matters
The canonical demonstration of the knight's unique power (no other piece can mate a fully-defended king) and of deflection sacrifice. Its ingredients — double check, forced capture, self-block — are a compressed course in forcing tactics.
Notable games
- Lucena's 1497 demonstration
- Greco's model games, 1620s
- Short–Timman would-be threats and a thousand blitz games since