Diagrams of the week - Smothered Mate from Philidor's Legacy (White Edition)

(Black Edition coming tomorrow!)

If you get your chess set out and play the moves in this blog post on your board, you will remember the things I say in this post better. ;)

This is a typical starting position for a sequence of moves called "Philidor's Legacy", which ultimately leads to a neat Smothered Mate. As you can see, it looks like the black king has CASTLED and USUALLY DOES (black MIGHT somehow get his king into the position above some other way though). The white queen and can be anyway where, on the next move, it can move onto the a2-g8 diagonal (giving CHECK to the black king). And the black rook can be anywhere on THE BACK RANK (Rank 8). The white king, of course, can also be anywhere as long as it doesn't hamper the sequence of moves that I'm about to show you. The pieces that MUST be on the squares in the diagram above are the white knight, the two black pawns, and the black king. Remember that other pieces can also be on the board, as long as they don't hamper the sequence of moves that I'm about to show you:

The move that white makes now is (on our diagram) Qc4+. The queen check can be anywhere from a2 to e6. If the black king moves to f8, then the queen will move to f7 and give CHECKMATE.

 So, black has only one way to prolong his death: Kh8. 


White now closes in for the KILL.. Nf7+! On our diagram, this FORKS the king and rook (Poor, Vulnerable Rooks!), but remember that the rook doesn't have to be on d8 for us the carry out Philidor's Legacy.

The black king is forced to move to g8 - Kg8.

Now white plays Nh6+. It looks like black can just take the knight, but take a lot closer and you'll find that the white queen is also checking the king - DOUBLE CHECK! Again, if the black king moves to f8, the white queen will move to f7 and deliver CHECKMATE - so black plays Kh8.


NOW GET READY FOR ONE OF THE MOST AMAZING SACRIFICES EVER... White's next move is truly spectacular...


*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

Qg8+! Oh yeah!
Black is FORCED to take the queen with his rook, and can you guess white's last and winning move?


Yep - 

Nf7#.


Learn this sequence of moves - learn it REALLY WELL. I guarantee you will one day be able to perform them in one of your games.

If you like, here's Philidor's Legacy animated. Just click on the image below to view the animation ;)

Oh, before we go, a few points to make about this neat sequence of moves:

• Remember that black can do the Philidor's Legacy moves on white as well
• The chess board can be FLIPPED and the checkmate can take place on the OTHER SIDE of the board