Secrets of Trapping Pieces: 23 King Killers Celebrating 2024
Happy Holidays and a Great Chess New Year to You! My gift to you is difficult problems tied to mating configurations I have blogged about. Not all of these puzzles lead to mate. Some "merely" extract sufficient concessions that resignation is certainly better than playing on and risking continued humiliation. Your other holiday gifts that I've enclosed are brief biographies of every player and some images I found captivating.
Good luck!
Aronian, Levon (2784) - Kovalev, Vladislav (2546) Wch Rapid 2015.10.10 (Opera Mate)
Hall Of Fame - 33: Levon Aronian - Chess.com
Levon Aronian is an Armenian-American GM born in 1982. His peak rating was 2830 in March 2014 when he was the second-best player in the world. His current rating is still a phenomenal 2729, placing him #22 in the world. He has secured world championship titles in Chess960, in 2006 and 2007, and blitz chess in 2010. Plus, he has a great, sly sense of humor.
Vladislav Kovalev is a Belarusian GM born in 1994 who currently plays under the FIDE flag. His peak rating was 2703 in February 2019 which placed him #40 in the world. He won the Belarusian Chess Championship in 2016. His current rating has slipped to 2559, a rating most of us can only dream about.
In this game, White spotted a tactic. But on the second move of this puzzle, they missed a faster kill. Will you see it?
Lessons learned or revisited:
A. Black was doomed by light square and back rank weaknesses. But spotting those deficits was beyond a super-GM and former world #2 in a rapid game.
B. Once again we witness a queen sacrificing herself to draw the opposing king into a fatal embrace.
C. White's rooks fully embraced the value of activity along open files.
Gunsberg, Isidor - Dickinson, William, London Rice Gambit Tournament, 1904.10.20 (Back-Rank Mate)
Isidor Gunsberg was a Hungarian master who may be best known for losing a match for the World Championship to Wilhelm Steinitz 10½ - 8½ in 1891.
William Dickinson only appears in the ChessBase DB for his participation in the 1904 London Rice Gambit Tournament. Dickinson won five games and lost twelve.
The Rice Gambit is an offshoot of the King's Gambit Accepted. "It is characterized by the moves 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 g5 4. h4 g4 5. Ne5 Nf6 6. Bc4 d5 7. exd5 Bd6 8. 0-0 (instead of the normal 8.d4). White offers the sacrifice of the knight on e5 in order to get his king to safety and prepare a rook to join the attack against Black's underdeveloped position." (Wikipedia)
This puzzle...is not easy.
Lessons learned or revisited:
A. Luft! If only Black had found time to create a pocket of air by advancing the a-pawn earlier in the game.
B. Cultivating the habit of patience and the ability to calculate beyond two or three moves is vital to finding these solutions in an actual game. It's a bit easier in a puzzle. But I still found this one difficult.
Capon, CH. - Taylor, John, Norwich Walpole House 1873.09 (Double Knights Mate)
CH. Capon was born in 1840. This was the only game of his that I found. He lost. That's quite the losing percentage.
John Odin Howard Taylor was born in 1837. He was a respectable enough player to make it into the ChessBase DB with multiple games, including a loss to Joseph Henry Blackburne in a blindfold simul held by Blackburne.
White couldn't bring themselves to play 15.gxf3 opening the g-file and creating an ugly display of a kingside pawn structure. Instead, White ventured 15.Kh1. But capturing on f3 was the only way to extend the game.
What blitzkrieg move did Black respond with?
Lessons learned or revisited: Attraction and deflection poke their noses in the tent...again! The key square in this instance was the f2 square. And the white rook was but a pawn in Black's machinations, drawn irresistibly into the traitor's role on g1 where it could no longer keep a wary eye on f2.
Idle musings: A quadruple Double Knights! I have yet to find an octuple. Perhaps I need to review some Octomom materials. Wait a minute. Doesn't a quadruple double equal an octuple? SUCCESS!! With that thought, we'll take a last, furtive glance at this finish and move on quickly to the next puzzle.
Adolf Anderssen was a German chess master born in 1818. He was considered the world's leading chess player from 1851 to 1858, when he lost a match to Morphy. Known best for his phenomenal sacrifices, he is immortalized by his play in the 1851 Immortal Game and the 1852 Evergreen Game. Idiosyncratically, he is also known for the opening named after him 1. a3.
Judit Polgar is the Queen of Chess. My title for her. She was also one of the top ten players in the world for a number of years. And the first person to break Bobby Fischer's record as the youngest-ever GM. She also broke into FIDE's top 100 list at the age of twelve, ranking number 55!! Her sister Susan is also a GM and the third sister, Sofia, is an IM. Tough family!
Jose Luis Fernandez Garcia is a Spanish GM born in 1954 who achieved his top rating of 2500 in 1990. His rating still stands at 2377 and he plays actively. He won the Spanish CC in 1989 and was the runner-up a staggering five times. He represented Spain in the 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990 and 1992 Olympiads. Unless you use his full name you will pull up any number of players with very similar names. As a "Smith", I can relate.
Black was in trouble but decided to seek counterplay by threatening White's Rook on c3 by playing 33...Qb4?? I'm sure you noticed that annotation of a blunder. So, what's up here? I don't see ANY white pawns anywhere near Black's king. What next?
Aronian, Levon (2784) - Kovalev, Vladislav (2546) Wch Rapid 2015.10.10 (Kill Box Mate)
Hall Of Fame - 33: Levon Aronian - Chess.com
Levon Aronian is an Armenian-American GM born in 1982. His peak rating was 2830 in March 2014 when he was the second-best player in the world. His current rating is still a phenomenal 2729, placing him #22 in the world. He secured world championship titles in Chess960 in 2006 and 2007 and blitz chess in 2010.
Vladislav Kovalev is a Belarusian GM born in 1994 playing under the FIDE flag. His peak rating was 2703 in February 2019 which placed him #40 in the world. He won the Belarusian Chess Championship in 2016. His current rating has slipped to 2559, a rating most of us can only dream about.
How should White react to Black's threat to capture the queen on f5?
Lessons learned or revisited:
A. The light square weaknesses on Black's kingside and in the center were fatal.
B. Black's knight was a mere bystander, too far away to influence the important events on the kingside. The b2-pawn was poisonous, leaching Black's position of what is usually a stalwart defender.
C. A lovely demonstration in a move 32 alternative that a different defense by Black could have resulted in a triangle mate. No surprise given that the two patterns share great similarities.
Kiriakov, Petr (2480) - Moskalenko, Viktor (2525), Yalta op, 1995 (Lolli's Mate)
Petr Kiriakov is a GM born in 1975 who plays under the FIDE flag. His peak rating of 2571 was reached in July 2005. He has not played FIDE-rated standard time control games since 2019 and is currently rated 2502. He did play some rapid games in March of this year.
Viktor Moskalenko is a GM playing for the Spanish Federation. Born in 1960 he achieved his peak rating of 2591 in July 2011. He was the Ukrainian CC in 1987. As of July 2024, his rating has declined to 2433. Among active players that still leaves him ranked #1252 on the FIDE rating list. He has written several books on the French Defense: The Flexible French and The Wonderful Winawer. He also wrote The Fabulous Budapest Gambit and Revolutionize Your Chess.
This offers an illustrative example of how the threat of Lolli's Mate can extract concessions sufficient to extract a victorious material advantage. Black, perhaps thoughtlessly and perhaps with an idea in mind, played 25...Bxf5?! to win a pawn. However, this mini-tactic backfires as it allows White to quickly convert a complex position into an endgame technical exercise with few barriers to victory. 25...Bd7 was the more cautious approach but would have left White clearly better with open lines pointing at the black king and better minor pieces (aka officers in my KIMPLODES! blog series.) I felt this was too difficult to pose as a puzzle. But before playing through this example, can you spot how to leverage a Lolli Configuration to secure the full point rather easily? Well, it's easily converted if you see the best path forward.
A rather extensive exercise in the power of major pieces along open and half-open files.
Shirov, Alexei (2719) - Fedorchuk, Sergey A (2619), FIDE World Cup, 2009.11.26 (Damiano's Mate)
Alexei Shirov is a Latvian and Spanish GM born in 1972 who studied under Mikhail Tal in his youth. His peak rating was 2755 in January 2008, but he was #2 on the world ranking list way back in January 1994, behind Karpov. What about Kasparov? That was when Kasparov was temporarily removed from the FIDE list because of his forming the PCA, a chess organization that was decidedly not-FIDE. The world under-16 CC in 1988, Shirov was runner-up in the World Junior CC in 1990. Shirov was almost the challenger to Kasparov in 2000 but funding fell through and Kasparov played Kramnik instead. After that, there were numerous near misses but events never quite turned in Shirov's favor.
Sergey Fedorchuk is a Ukranian GM born in 1981. His peak rating was 2674 in November 2010, but two years before that he reached a peak ranking of #51 in the world. He has slipped a bit since being rated "only" 🤣 2565 as of September 2024. Sergey has outright won or tied for first in numerous tournaments.
Black's King elected to flee towards the center, perhaps fearing a potential g5-g6 move by White when the pin on the f7 pawn would have been quite annoying. An unfortunate choice against a super-GM.
Can you match Shirov's play as White?
The latter portion of His Majesty's reign found him quite active though to little avail.
Puljek Salai, Zorica (2200) - Stanic, Jadranka (2075) CRO-chT2, 1996 ( Balestra's Mate)
Zorica Puljek-Salai is a Croatian WIM born in 1965. Her peak rating of 2276 was achieved in September 1999. She is listed as retired although she was playing some rated blitz games as recently as October 2022. But no standard time control games since October 2005.
Jadranka Stanic is a Croatian player born in 1967. Her peak rating of 2135 was achieved in 1994. She also is listed as retired.
Black just moved their knight from c6 to e7, blocking the check delivered by the white bishop on d6. They would have done better to sacrifice an exchange by placing the rook on e7 thereby opening e8 as a flight square for the king. Black's king currently has no legal moves.
How are you going to replicate White's play in the actual game?
With the enemy king on the menu, it's sometimes necessary to bring more friends to the party. That's okay, there is plenty to share as His Majesty's goose is cooked over a growing fire.
Lee, Jun Hyeok (2369) - Wagner, Dennis (2581) Chess.com Bullet op1, 2020.12.19 (Smothered Mate)
Davies, Nigel (2510) - Dive, Russell (2315) Wrexham 1994 (Triangle Mate)
Nigel Davies is a Welsh GM born in 1960. He achieved his peak rating of 2530 in January 1995. He has published numerous books, including The Chess Player's Battle Manual, The Power Chess Program, and seven books on various openings. He is a registered Tai Chi instructor, so there is a life outside of the 64 squares for some GMs.
Russell Dive is a New Zealand IM born in 1966. He won the New Zealand Chess Championship outright or jointly seven times. His peak rating of 2448 was achieved in July 1999.
Black just captured a loose bishop on h5. How should white address the material deficit on the board?
Lessons learned or revisited:
A. Black's three pieces huddled in the far corner of the queenside offered no value to their majesty in his death throes.
B. White had such a large attackers-to-defenders advantage that material sacrifices were both possible and necessary.
Alexis Cabrera Pino (2440) - (2165) Dos Hermanas op 3rd, 2002.04.09 (Double Bishops Mate)
Alexis Cabrera Pino is a Spanish GM born in 1976. His peak ELO was 2546 in May 2013. As of May 2024, his rating has fallen to 2409.
Duvan Castano is a Colombian chess player born in 1985. His peak rating was an impressive 2362 in September 2011 but he appears to have retired in October 2014 and never secured a title.
"The first step is the hardest in every journey of dreams." Attributed to Moffat Machingura. Or, if you prefer, "The First Step is the Hardest", a song by Judson Herd, released in 2016.
I particularly enjoy that every white piece, except the king, played an active part in this sequence. Even the a3-rook that proved to be a poisoned rook. A fact Black realized too late after gobbling down the "loose piece".
Gagunashvili, Merab (2555) - Kalegin, Evgenij (2458) Moscow Aeroflot op-B 2006.02.11 (Hook Mate)
Merab Gagunashvili is a Georgian GM and two-time Georgian chess champion. His peak rating was 2625 in early 2007.
Evgenij Kalegin is a Russian IM who earned the title in 1993. His peak rating at classical chess was just over 2500 FIDE. At age 70 he can still be found playing games on chess.com.
Black just placed their king on g7, completely altering the normal outcome of the game. Find the winning plan for White.
A nice little danse à trois. The other pieces could only look on as the black king never had a spare moment to break free of the deadly dance pattern (danse mortelle pour trois) in which he found himself netted.
KevinSmithIdiot (2006) - PancakeER (983) daily, chess.com 06.04.2023 (Boden's Mate)
KevinSmithIdiot is a Chessable author, chess.com blogger, tae-kwan-do second dan black belt, retired US Air Force pilot, retired cybersecurity expert, chess player rated over 2300 rapid online, husband, and dad. This was a rated daily game that I accidentally accepted. The accident is that it was a rated game instead of unrated. A high-risk, no-reward situation unless I managed to finish quickly and prettily.
PancakeER is one of my friends on chess.com.
Your goal? To see how a Boden-like configuration developed and then coalesced into an actual Boden mate. My opponent had just played 14...b5. Clearly, I am winning in this position. But I wanted to close this out quickly.
What would you have played?
Reilly, Tim (2330) - Rutherford, Simon (2305) AUS,ch 03.01.1998 (Epaulette Configuration)
Tim Reilly is an Australian FM born in 1967. His peak FIDE rating was 2365 in July 1994. He does not appear to have played a FIDE-rated game since December 2022 when his rating continued a long-term slide to 2071. His Australian Chess Federation (ACF) rating dropped below 2200 in May 2024.
Simon Rutherford is an Australian FM born in 1975. His peak FIDE rating was 2305 in July 1996. It had dropped to 2279 as of July 2004, after he played in the Begonia Open, and he does not appear to have played a FIDE-rated game since then. His ACF rating stood at 2156 after a good tournament result in May 2020.
White's only hope was the passed f-pawn so they just played f6 threatening the rook on f7.
Tal, Mihail - Koblencs, Aleksandrs, URS Training 1965 (Blind Swine Mate)
Hall Of Fame - 15: Mikhail Tal - Chess.com
Mikhail Tal, aka The Magician of Riga, was the eighth World Chess Champion. It should surprise nobody that the 1970 book Modern Chess Brilliancies included more of Tal's games than any other player. In what may surprise many, for 44 years he held the record for the longest unbeaten streak in chess history, 95 games without a loss! Ding Liren finally broke that record in 2018 with a streak of 100 games. That said, Tal had a far higher winning percentage during his unbeaten streak than Liren during his.
Aleksandrs Koblencs was born in 1916 and won the Latvian Chess Championship four times. He was also Tal's trainer from 1949 through the 1960 match that deposed Botvinnik. Koblencs wrote numerous chess books, though most translations were in German. Personally, I don't have the patience to translate from German to English, even using online tools.
Black got too anxious to poke at the White King and played 17...Qxa2. Perhaps they thought that the loose Rook on g1 would concern White. How did Tal respond?
Summary: There were too many attackers for Black to fend off and too many open lines for White to leverage to brutal effect.
George MacDonnell - Samuel Boden, London Int 1869 #1 (Pillsbury's Mate)
George MacDonnell was an Anglican clergyman and chess master. A strong master, he walloped George Mackenzie in two matches and shared 1st with Wilhelm Steinitz at Dublin 1865.
Samuel Boden was an English master. Boden's mate is named after him for a game played in 1853...even though the pattern had been seen in a game nine years earlier. I need this guy's press agent! Paul Morphy opined that Boden was the strongest English master of that time.
Traitors and overloaded defenders doom another king stuck on the g1 square.
Spassky, Boris Vasilievich - Kortschnoj, Viktor Lvovich, Candidates f 1968.09.19 (Anastasia's Mate)
Hall Of Fame: 16: Boris Spassky - Chess.com
Boris Spassky was a Soviet-Russian GM born in 1937, Spassky supposedly learned chess while on a train of evacuees from Leningrad during the WWII siege of Leningrad. He became the tenth World CC after defeating Petrosian in 1969, the man who defeated him in their 1966 title match. Then Boris lost to Bobby Fischer in 1972, a scenario repeated in an unofficial match in 1992. Spassky won the Soviet CC twice and also lost two playoffs that could have seen him as a four-time Soviet CC. He immigrated to France in 1976.
Hall Of Fame - 20: Viktor Korchnoi - Chess.com
Viktor Kortschnoj occupied the same rarefied air as Paul Keres, players who were titans of the board but never quite wore the crown of World CC. Born in 1931 this Soviet and Swiss GM played four matches, one unofficial, against Anatoly Karpov. Had he beaten Karpov in their 1974 Candidates match he would have been declared World CC when Fischer vacated the title. Then he lost World CC matches to Karpov in 1978 and 1981. A four-time USSR CC he was still exceptionally strong at an advanced age, ranked among the world's top 100 players at age 75.
The first few moves are very difficult. Good luck with this one.
The fact the first two moves see White's forces moving away from the enemy king is a pleasing feature, not a bug!
Sjugirov, Sanan (2663) - Galperin, Platon (2474), Titled Tuesday, 2021.03.23 (Arabian Mate)A case where threats are examined first, and only then checks.
Paulsen, Louis - Morphy, Paul, USA-01 Congress Grand Tournament, New York 1857.11.08 (Morphy's Mate)
Louis Paulsen was a German chess master born in 1833. Paulsen lost the final match of this tournament to Morphy, scoring only one victory against two losses and two draws. Later in his career, Paulsen played three matches against Adolf Anderssen, drawing an 1862 match and winning matches in 1876 and 1877. Paulsen was renowned for his defensive prowess and both Wilhelm Steinitz and Aron Nimzowitsch praised his ideas and games.
Hall Of Fame - 10: Paul Morphy - Chess.com
Paul Morphy was the best chess player in the world at one time, but his last meaningful chess game was in 1859 at the age of 22. A good reason that he was considered "The Pride and Sorrow of Chess". After his too-early retirement, there are still recorded simul games and odds games until 1869.
Finally, we get to the game that reportedly inspired the naming of this mating net.
See if you can find the faster mate that Morphy missed. Zukertort later pointed out this alternative improvement. This alternative may have been why this particular mating pattern is named after Morphy. Seems to me they should have named it "the Zuuuuuke" mate.
Note that the final move sees the Black rook placed on a square you do not normally see in a more typical Morphy's mate.
Lessons learned or revisited:
A. If the rook is protected, then Morphy's mate can occur with the rook snuggled up next to the enemy king delivering a double checkmate. Useful to know!!
B. The Keep It Simple, Smith (KISS) Principle would assert that Morphy's approach in the game was straightforward enough.
Boris Spassky - Bent Larsen, Candidates Semifinal 09.07.1968 (Vukovic's Mate)
Hall Of Fame: 16: Boris Spassky - Chess.com
Boris Spassky was a Soviet-Russian GM born in 1937, Spassky supposedly learned chess while on a train of evacuees from Leningrad during the WWII siege of Leningrad. He became the tenth World CC after defeating Petrosian in 1969, the man who defeated him in their 1966 title match. Then Boris lost to Bobby Fischer in 1972, a scenario repeated in an unofficial match in 1992. Spassky won the Soviet CC twice and also lost two playoffs that could have seen him as a four-time Soviet CC. He immigrated to France in 1976.
Hall Of Fame - 29: Bent Larsen - Chess.com
Bent Larsen was a Danish GM born in 1935. His peak rating of 2660 and peak ranking of #4 in the world were both achieved in 1971. An incredibly imaginative, even unorthodox, player he reached the semifinals of the Candidates four times, but never got to compete for the World Championship.
Don't you hate spite checks. Of course, they were professionals and that didn't happen in the game. Instead, the mere appearance of Vukovic's Configuration was sufficient to earn a resignation. No such luck for you. It's give up in disgust or click through to the end.
That’s All Folks!!
We've reached the end. Hope you found it challenging enough to be enjoyable😉🤣. Let me know if you found any mistakes and whether you enjoyed this. I know I have fun finding the examples and putting them through the wringer to see what I learn along the way. If you did enjoy it and would like to see how to trap pieces besides the king, there are links to the Secrets of Trapping Pieces series proffered below.
This series now goes on vacation, perhaps for all of 2025. I am focusing on two other activities. First, my collaboration with IM @AttilaTurzo to write a book fully explaining KIMPLODES! Analysis by and for Humans (that isn't the title you will find at the link, but that post provides links to relevant material.) Second, nurturing and encouraging the growth of chess bloggers while judging blogging competitions on both BlogChamps and The Blogger Awards v2.0. When I return to Secrets of Trapping Pieces, I will probably return with a focus on pieces other than the king.
Related blogs: You can find a multiverse of blogs about trapping various pieces at the links below. Or for the visually inclined you can just use your favorite search engine and ask to see images for "Secrets of Trapping Pieces". You'll either get pictures posted by animal trappers, I suspect mostly people who are not named Kristi Noem, or pictures from yours truly.
Knight
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Knight Trapped by Bishop + Pawn
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Knight Trapped by Bishop, Knight and King
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Knight Trapped by Rook Part 1 of 2
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Knight Trapped by Rook Part 2 of 2
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Knight Trapped by Knight
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Knight Trapped by Pawns
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Knight Trapped by King + Piece
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Bishop Dominated by Pawns Part 2 of 5
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Bishop Dominated by Pawns Part 3 of 5
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Bishop Dominated by Pawns Part 4 of 5
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Bishop Dominated by Pawns Part 5 of 5
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Bishop Dominated by Rook + Pawn
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Said the Spider to the Fly
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: My Experience Writing a Chess Book
