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...


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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

Poor, Vulnerable Rooks!! - Part 1

Take a look at the chess starting position. Which pieces are not defended by ANYTHING? Yep - the ROOKS!! The humble, versatile protectors of the king, the pieces that usually survive until the very endgame, not defended by anything in the beginning! And the enemy queens, knights and bishops LOVE taking advantage of this, and frequently manage to kill the poor things mercilessly at the start of the game.




Please note that in this blog post WHITE always carries out the attacks. REMEMBER THAT BLACK CAN ALSO DO THESE ATTACKS AS WELL!!


All names of attacks are made-up by me and may not be their real names!!

HERE COME THE KNIGHTS!!

The biggest rook-devourer is the eccentric knight. With all its notorious knight forks, enemy rooks commonly are murdered before they even move once!

The f7 queen-rook fork

This is one of the most common attacks on rooks by knights. A white knight LEAPS forward and snatches the black pawn on f7 and as it is defended by a bishop (usually on c4, as in the diagram on the right) the king can't take it! The queen has to flee, leaving the knight to LEAP forward once more and gobble up the black h8 rook. The diagram on the left is a typical f7 knight fork from the Two Knights Defence, where black blunders and allows the white knight to do its deed. Below is an animated sequence of moves that leads to the fork on the left. Click on the picture to view the animation:

Have YOU seen/played any chess games where an f7 queen-rook fork took place but from a different opening? It is particularly good if BLACK carried out the fork. Please comment and share the chess world with your knowledge! :) Help me add some more info onto the next part of this blog post. See the bottom of this blog post for more details. Thanks!


The king-rook check fork (mirrored f7 fork)

This is only a DEMONSTRATION -
not a real game position!

This knight fork is sort of the same as the f7 fork, but the other way around - the white knight now CHECKS the king and forks the a8 rook. The queen CAN, of course take the knight... ;) I do not remember a position in one of my games where a king-rook check fork occurred, so if you remember a position, I'd be really grateful if you could leave a comment. See the bottom of this blog post for more details. Thanks!

The dangers to queen-side castling

In the diagram on the left, black is about to castle. If he chooses to castle king-side, then FINE - go on! However, what about QUEEN-SIDE castling? It can't hurt, can it?!

Oh yes it can... (Click on the image below to view the animation)

A neat knight fork by white - I like it!

Of course, in a REAL game, black's pawns would NOT all be on their starting positions - this is just a demonstration. Remember to always watch out for pesky knight forks after you castle queen-side - it's happened to me!!

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So the next time you play a chess game, always watch out and CHECK IF YOUR ROOKS ARE UNDER THREAT!! ;) Part 2 of Poor, Vulnerable Rooks!! will focus on other pieces' ways of annihilating rooks.

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Do YOU have any experience of other ways that rooks can be mercilessly tortured? Torture by any piece will do - please leave a comment and share the chess world your knowledge! ;) Help me add some more info onto the next part of this blog post. Thanks!

• I would be really grateful if you could, in your comment, describe exactly the position of the chess board.
• Starting from left to right, write the contents of each square.
• Black is abbreviated "B", white is "W"
• E.g. for a white bishop, write "WBishop"
• If a square is blank, write "nil"
• Separate squares by commas. E.g. "WRook, WKnight"
• If a new rank starts, write "-". E.g. "nil - WPawn"
• If a lot of the same type of piece are consecutively placed, write the number of consecutively placed pieces there are, following by what type of piece they are. E.g. "8BPawns", "5nils"

For example, the f7 queen-rook fork position on the left could be described like this: "BRook, nil, BBishop, BQueen, BKing, BBishop, nil, BRook - 4BPawns, nil, WKnight, BPawn, nil - 2nils, BKnight, 2nils, BKnight, nil, BPawn - 4nils, BPawn, 3nils - 2nils, WBishop, nil, WPawn, 3nils - 8nils - 4WPawns, nil, 3WPawns - WRook, WKnight, BBishop, WQueen, WKing, 2nils, WRook."

Thank you for taking your time to share the chess world your knowledge! Thank you! :)