Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Lolli's Mate
The primary purpose of this blog is to allow you to test your skills in applying Lolli's 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 some brief discussion of some typical configurations of pieces that constitute an example of Lolli's Mate. You can skip the discussion and go directly to the puzzles by scrolling past the picture further below.
Every time I hear "Lolli's" Mate a silly song from the 1950s burns itself in my brain for a week or more. So, I'm putting the lyrics on page to see if that offers relief. Nah, not working. 
Lollipop, Lollipop
Oh, Lolli-Lolli-Lolli
Lollipop, Lollipop
Oh, Lolli-Lolli-Lolli
Lollipop *pop*, (boom boom boom boom)
Songwriters: Julius Dixon and Beverly Ross in 1958. Recent cover by Lil Wayne. Multiple remixers including Nicki Minaj. I particularly like the ending of "boom boom boom boom" at the end of the chorus. That is particularly appropriate for a checkmate. Sounds like double tap followed by double tap. Just to be sure. The King is dead, Long live the King.
Lolli's Mate, our actual topic today, originated from the creative mind of Giambattista Lolli, an Italian chess master born in 1698. He is most famous for his book Osservazioni teorico-pratiche sopra il giuoco degli scacchi (English: Theoretical-practical views on the game of chess), published in 1763. Oversimplified, the underlying precept of Lolli's Mate is to checkmate the enemy on their first rank with an enemy Queen on their second rank with the Queen protected by a pawn.
We begin with some diagrams showing some typical features of the Lolli's Mate...though I prefer to term it Lolli's Configuration. My reasoning being that the mere threat of a Lolli's Configuration. may be sufficient to compel significant concessions from the opponent. Perhaps even concessions sufficient to state that the game is effectively over from a technical perspective. The very last game entry in this blog is an illustrative game that points to the value of realizing a mate threat can be almost as powerful as an actual mate!
Diagrams of some typical Lolli's Mates
I do want to point out that Lolli's Mate and Damiano's Mate are nigh on indistinguishable. In Lolli's Mate, as seen in the diagrams below, the Queen is delivering mate while located on the seventh rank and one square directly in front of the doomed King. In Damiano's Mate, explored in the prior blog in this series, the Queen delivers mate while located on the seventh rank and one square diagonally from Her victim. And, of course, She is still protected by one of Her pawns.
These are minimalist positions to point out the most salient, readily observable features that might suggest to you that Lolli's Mate is a possibility. In a real game there would generally be other pieces on the board, so we need to train our eyes to observe the mere outlines of this mating configuration and then calculate to determine if it is achievable.
Diagram 1.
Bottom right-hand corner. Clearly the Queen either captured a white piece on h2 to deliver mate or slid along White's second rank to deliver mate. This is as bare-bones an example of this configuration as you will see.
Black threatens ...Rc1+ forcing the White King to capture. Black would then deliver mate on c2.
Top right-hand corner. A typical Lolli's mating pattern when a fianchettoed black Bishop has been displaced. Or perhaps the Bishop wasn't there but Black had to push their g-pawn one square as a defensive measure. However it happened, we see a prototypical example in which the white Queen invaded on the dark squares and has delivered the coup de grace on g7. A similar example would instead find the White pawn on h6 and Her Majesty still parked on g7.
Diagram 2.
Top right-hand corner. White threatens Lolli's Mate in three, beginning with an Exchange sacrifice on g6.
Bottom left-hand corner. White's Bishop is overloaded, defending the a3 pawn and blockading the second rank so that Black's Queen cannot deliver mate on a2. If it is Black to move than ...Rxa3+ would bring this position to a final end state.
Caruana, Fabiano (2835) - Clarke, Brandon (2429), Titled Tuesday, 2020.06.02
Black was in a totally lost position and offered a help-mate to White.
Sabah, A. - Van Emmelo, John, WchT Students 20th final C, 1974.07.27
There were some quite interesting moments in this game before White played 35.Re3? But why not offer an assist with a little help-mate. HEADS UP: The software is saying that the checkmate on g2 is an incorrect answer. Please ignore that. No idea why that happens. If you hit the "?" button in the lower left-hand corner of the puzzle it will show the answer correctly.
Pridorozhni, Aleksei (2565) - Slavin, Alexei (2364), RUS-ch blitz, 2017.10.02
If a piece is captured, then you should automatically recapture, right? So Black captured on f5 with ...gxf5?? After all, what could go wrong when neither side has castled yet?
Shirov, Alexei (2655) - Thorhallsson, Throstur (2425), Reykjavik, 1992
Black should have played ...Qg5+ on their last move to retain any semblance of a chance. How did White polish off their opponent?
Griffiths, Evan - O'Hanlon, John, British CF-03 First Class, 1906.08.09
A truly brilliant move (15.Qxe4!!) would have saved White. Tragically for White this brilliant move exceeded their calculating ability. So, they chose to develop their Knight to d2, attacking the Black pawn on e4 and Bishop on f3. Black quite rightly ignored this folderol and the game concluded in short order. Can you do the same?
Kasparov, Garry (2805) - Oxford United Football, London Simpson's simul, 1993.02.??
Find a mate that is one move faster than what Kasparov played in this simul.
Zvorykina, Kira - Tal, Mihail, URS-ch23 Quarterfinal, 1955.05.??
White seemingly has all the threats under control and has a double attack on the valuable pawn on d4 and the Rook on c8. How did Black, the Wizard of Riga, finish this off?
Naiditsch, Arkadij (2687) - Brodowski, Piotr (2444), EU-ch blitz, 2016.12.17
White just removed a Bishop from g6 and is now up in Material. But the White King is clearly feeling unsafe. How did Black quickly bring the point home against this very strong GM in a blitz game?
Manush, Shah (2148) - Pereira, Johnharry (1541), Mumbai Wealth op 3rd, 2018.01.01
How does White use that dangerous passed pawn to induce a game-ending blunder from their much lower-rated opponent?
Costachi, Mihnea (2461) - Wagner, Dennis (2570), Early Titled Tuesday, 2022.08.16
It's blitz and White is a piece up. But the White King is clearly unsafe. How did Black finish this off?
Pratten, Wilfred Henry - Perrin, W., British CF-16 General B, 1923.08.??
Although Black's position looked scary they could have held on with 27...Kg7! and then moving the Rook to g8 to provide a flight square for His Majesty. Instead, Black thought they should bolster the security of the f7 pawn and played 27...Rf8? Can you take advantage of that mistake and a subsequent Black mistake to deliver mate? Or is this just a very good position and should White be seeking Material gains?
Suttles, Duncan - Ujtumen, Tudev, Interzonal-08, 1970.11.29
It's good to have an exceedingly difficult puzzle once in a while.
Kiriakov, Petr (2480) - Moskalenko, Viktor (2525), Yalta op, 1995
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. But this mini-tactic backfires as it allows White to quickly convert what was 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.
Knight
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Knight Trapped by Bishop, Knight and King - Chess.com
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Knight Trapped by Rook Part 1 of 2 - Chess.com
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Knight Trapped by Rook Part 2 of 2 - Chess.com
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Knight Trapped by Knight - Chess.com
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Knight Trapped by Pawns - Chess.com
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Bishop Dominated by Pawns Part 2 of 5 - Chess.com
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Bishop Dominated by Pawns Part 3 of 5 - Chess.com
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Bishop Dominated by Pawns Part 4 of 5 - Chess.com
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Bishop Dominated by Pawns Part 5 of 5 - Chess.com
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Bishop Dominated by Rook + Pawn - Chess.com
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Said the Spider to the Fly - Chess.com
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: My Experience Writing a Chess Book - Chess.com
