Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Kill Box Mate

The primary purpose of this blog is to allow you to test your skills in applying the kill box mate, not just trapping the King but putting an end to His Majesty. The puzzles range from very easy to...well, it took a very strong player to see this over the board. The puzzles are provided after a brief discussion of a typical configuration of pieces that constitute an example of the kill box mate. You can skip the discussion and go directly to the puzzles by scrolling past the two pictures below.
Note that I prefer the term kill box configuration. My reasoning is that the mere threat of a kill box configuration may be sufficient to compel significant concessions from the opponent. Perhaps sufficient concessions to state that the game is effectively over from a technical perspective. 

Diagram of a Typical Kill Box Mate
The diagram below depicts two examples of a kill box mate. The defining characteristics are that the rook delivers mate, and the queen protects the rook and covers many potential flight squares. The king is trapped by the side of the board or one of his own pieces. In the lower-left corner below you will see that the king is prevented from further flight by the pawn on a2. A white rook, knight, or pawn would have served black's purposes, foiling further flight. Note how the king, queen, and rook form a 3x3 box, a coffin for the king. The kill box mate is very similar to a triangle mate. Please note that there are occasions when the queen can deliver a kill box mate, but another piece is required. We see a mere pawn filling that protective role in one of the puzzles, Savchenko - Aagard.

Sometimes the kill box mate is preceded via a railroad maneuver. That is a scenario wherein a queen and rook, separated by one file or rank, chase the enemy king down the file or rank between them culminating in a kill box.

Let the puzzles begin!
Tolhuizen, Ludo (2275) - Wharton, William, Budapest FS07 IM, 1992
Ludo Tolhuizen was born in 1961 and played for the Netherlands Federation. His peak ELO rating appears to have been 2305 in 1989. He is currently rated 1931.

William Wharton was born in 1959 and played for the USA. His peak ELO rating appears to have been 2305 in 1989. He is currently rated 2297 but does not appear to have played a FIDE rated game since 2009. He is listed as retired on chess.com's site.

Puzzle rush time!

Lessons learned or revisited: When pawn walls disintegrate kings are exposed.

Norman, George - Thomas, George, Christmas Congress 1928/29-09 Premier 1929.01.04
George Norman played in four Hastings tournaments between 1926 and 1934. He drew games against Max Euwe and Vera Menchik in 1934 indicating the high quality of his game.

Sir George Thomas won the British chess crown twice. He was also renowned for his skill at badminton (a 21-time All-England badminton champion) and no slouch at tennis where he reached Wimbledon's men's quarterfinals and doubles semifinals in 1911. His scores against Alekhine (0W-7L-6D) and Capablanca (1W-6L-4D) indicate that he was no world beater but certainly capable of putting up a fight.

White clearly made poor decisions that left them in this miserable position. How did Black end White's misery?

Lessons learned or revisited:
A. White suffered from extreme light square weaknesses on the kingside.
B. A fine example of how the displacement of the pawns in front of the king can signal a fatal outcome.
C. It's intriguing that Black had time to lift both rooks to the sixth rank.

Storland, Knut (2273) - Svedenborg, Paul (2255) NOR-chT 2000.06.02
Knut Storland was born in 1966 and played for the Norwegian Federation. His peak ELO was 2273. 

Paul Svedenborg was born in 1947 and won the Norwegian CC in 1966 and 1967. He is listed as retired on chess.com and has not played a FIDE rated game since 2003. His peak rating was 2255 as seen at the time of this game.

Black just captured on d5, no doubt confident that their extra rook and bishop would prevail in any endgame once the time control was reached in a few more moves. Sad, very sad. Black overlooked a nasty ending before reaching their desired end state.

Lessons learned or revisited:
A. King safety outweighs material concerns. I feel obligated to refer folks to my analytic approach on that topic at Analyze with KIMPLODES! K = King Safety.
B. The missing pawn wall fatally afflicted the king.

Ermenkov, Evgenij (2490) - Ciocaltea, Victor, Smederevska Palanka 1981.06.18
Evgenij Ermenkov was born in 1949 and was awarded the GM title in 1977. He won the Bulgarian CC in 1973, 1975, 1976, 1979 and 1984. His peak rating was 2480 in January 1976. He was still playing actively in 2022.

Victor Ciocaltea was born in 1932 and was awarded the GM title in 1978. He won the Romanian CC in 1952, 1959, 1961, 1970, 1971 and 1979. His peak rating was 2480 in January 1976. He passed away at the young age of 51.

White is down by a pair of minor pieces and the white king is very exposed. If there's going to be a win it will almost certainly require a continuous series of checks.

Lessons learned or revisited:
A. Simple chess is good chess.  
B. Always look for checks. And if you can combine a check with a capture, all the better.
C. If you don't know how to drive the train down the tracks, you need to learn that technique. It will win you some games. A far more practical lesson than how to mate with bishop and knight versus lone king.

Savchenko, Boris (2578) - Aagaard, Jacob (2531) Politiken Cup 30th, 2008.07.23
Boris Savchenko is a Russian GM born in 1986. He won the Moscow Ch in 2008 and 2016. He is also a two-time winner of the Moscow Open. His peak rating was 2655 in April 2009, and he reached #71 in the world in January of that same year.

Jacob Aagaard is a dual citizen Danish-Scottish GM born in 1973. He won the Scottish CC in 2005 and 2012 but was not yet a citizen in the former instance. So, he collected the money but not the title for that first victory. A FIDE Senior Trainer, he is also an award-winning chess author and co-owner of the chess publishing firm Quality Chess. His peak rating was 2542 in May 2010.

Black's king has taken a stroll to the middle of the board. If this were a King of the Hill variant, then Black would have won!! But instead, all that Black can point to as positives are an extra bishop and some actively placed pieces on f2 and g5. How did White wrap things up?

Lessons learned or revisited:
A. To repeat myself, and 10,000 coaches, material is immaterial when a king is in the lurch. ("in the lurch" is old-school, American slang for unsafe.) To emphasize that point about material, note that White's knight is not even in the game! Instead, the b3-knight merely cheered on their compatriots from the sideline. 
B. White won on the light squares. But used a dark square to draw the black queen away from the defense of key light squares.
C. A kill box mate can see the queen delivering mate but only if another player on the same team is available to protect her majesty.

Wells, Peter (2480) - Emms, John (2545) Redbus KO, 2000
Peter Wells is a British GM born in 1965. He was the British Rapid CC in 2002, 2003 and 2007. He achieved his peak rating of 2545 in July 1995. He has published a slew of books on openings, piece play, and chess improvement.

John Emms is an English GM born in 1965. He tied for first in the 1997 British CC. He has published 30 books that I am aware of, including one with this game's opponent titled Dangerous Weapons: Anti-Sicilians. He achieved his peak rating of 2586 in July 1999.

White is down a bishop and a pawn but has shredded Black's kingside. Time to find a four-move mate.

Lessons learned or revisited:
A. A typical aspect of many kill box mates is that the enemy king has no pawn support.
B. It's obviously rather useful to recognize when the railroad technique will lead to a kill box mate...or some other mating pattern, such as the triangle mate!!

Zapata, Alonso (2535) - Van der Wiel, John (2570) Hoogovens op 1995.01
Alonso Zapata Ramirez is a Colombian GM born in 1958 who has won the Colombian CC eight times. He nearly earned a world title, placing second behind Artur Yusupov in the 1977 World Junior CC. He achieved his peak rating of 2580 in January 1993.

John Van der Wiel is a Dutch GM born in 1959. He was the European Junior Champion in 1982 and won the Dutch CC in 1984 and 1986...and has nine second-place finishes! That had to be annoying. His peak rating of 2590 was achieved in January 1987.

Black's threat of mate on b2 has to be factored into White's decision-making.

Lessons learned or revisited:
If a little train could (aka, "I think I can, I think I can..."), then two big trains certainly can. Translation from Kevin-ese: When a queen and rook can operate along parallel tracks and continuously check the enemy king, a mate will likely occur at the end of the sequence.

Parker, Jonathan (2527) - Howell, David (2533) BCF-chT 0708 (4NCL) 2008.05.05
Jonathan Parker is a British GM born in 1976. He was the Scottish Champion in 1994 and the Under 21 British junior champion in 1996. His peak rating of 2570 was reached in July 2002, and he is currently rated 2523 in classical chess and 2506 in rapid.

David Howell is an English GM and a commentator extraordinaire, a perception of mine that was reinforced during his stint providing analysis on chess.com for the duration of Norway Chess 2024. Born in 1990 he won the British CC in 2009, 2013 and 2014. His peak rating of 2712 in August 2015 elevated him to the lofty status of one of the 2700+ super-GMs, when he also reached #36 in the world. His rating today is 2675.

White is temporarily down a piece but has the pleasure of choosing to reduce the material imbalance by capturing on a8 or f6. Which is best?

Lessons learned or revisited:
A. When there are many roads to Rome (i.e., victory) it can require arduous calculations to suss out the fastest path.
B. As an untitled player I would have held off resigning a few moves beyond the point Black threw in the towel. Perhaps even until they played 29. Qxf6+. 🤣 Trust but verify!

Vorobiov, Evgeny (2536) - Konovalov, Nikolay (2426) Moscow-ch 2008.05.12
Evgeny Vorobiov is a Russian GM born in 1971. He achieved his peak rating of 2621 in January 2010 but has recently seen a drop in his rating to 2407, placing him #1,655 in the world.

Nikolay Konovalov is a Russian GM born in 1989. According to chess.com he is retired. He achieved his peak rating of 2501 in January 2017. He has not played any FIDE rated classical games since April 2017. Achieved his title and called it a career? Who knows. He did play some rated blitz games in February of this year.

White's king is as snug as a bug in a rug. Black's king...not so much. But Black does have a passed pawn that threatens to change the dynamics on the board. How did White secure victory?

Lessons learned or revisited:
A. Exposed kings are fragile beings.
B. If kings in the center are exposed to attacks then kings on the rim are exposed to common mating threats.

El Taher, Fouad (2471) - Hassan, Tarek (2259) Tanta op 3rd, 2000.05.07
Fouad El Taher is an Egyptian IM and FIDE Arbiter. Born in 1965 he earned his IM title in 1990 and achieved a peak rating of 2505 in July 2003. Still active in blitz and rapid play, he has not played a FIDE-rated classical game since 2011.

Tarek Hassan is an Egyptian player born in 1957. His peak rating since 2003 was 2278 in October 2003.

Black's queen and knight are far afield and contribute to neither defense nor offense. Still, Black's rooks appear to defend the king's castled keep.

Lessons learned or revisited:
A. White's calculations were simplified because an endless series of checks led to checkmate. Consequently, no attention needed to be spared for ...Qb2+ ideas.
B. Recognition of the interim hook mate configuration further simplified the calculations. Vastly expanded pattern recognition is a recognized ability in the strongest players. The rest of us need to increase the number of patterns we recognize.

Aronian, Levon (2784) - Kovalev, Vladislav (2546) Wch Rapid 2015.10.10
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 in blitz chess in 2010.

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.

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. Basically, 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. 

Colas, Joshua (2369) - Gorovets, Andrey (2524) New York Int op 10th, 2017.06.23
Joshua Colas is an American IM (Elect) born in 1998. He was the US National champion for 7th grade in 2010, 10th grade in 2013, and 11th grade in 2014. He has one GM norm and needs to reach the rating threshold of 2400 for his IM title to be confirmed. His peak rating to date was 2387 in April 2016. But completing the IM requirements is going to take some work as his standard rating dropped to 2232 in August 2023.

Andrey Gorovets is a Belarusian GM born in 1987. His peak rating was 2551 in June 2016. He is currently rated 2480 placing him #803 in the world. He played for the Texas Tech University chess team. Go Red Raiders!

White just captured a knight on c2. Seems reasonable! After all, White is now two pieces up. Can you find the mate in nine that Black found in the game?

Lessons learned or revisited:
A. Intense calculating skills are sometimes required.
B. Always consider sacrifices that destroy the castled king's walls.

Related blogs: You can find an entire series of blogs about trapping various pieces at: 
Knight

Bishop

Rook

King

Miscellaneous

Secrets of Trapping Pieces: A Beautiful Loss
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Said the Spider to the Fly
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: My Experience Writing a Chess Book