Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Suffocation Mate

KevinSmithIdiot

Updated: Oct 22, 2024, 11:47 AM | 6

The primary purpose of this blog is to allow you to test your skills in applying the Suffocation 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 the Suffocation Mate. You can skip the discussion and go directly to the puzzles by scrolling past the picture further below.

We begin with some diagrams showing some typical features of the Suffocation Mate in which the King is checked, perhaps mated, by an opposing Knight and most potential flight squares are filled by traitors who smother their own Liege Lord by huddling too close, a veritable swaddle.

Note that I prefer the term Suffocation Configuration. My reasoning being that the mere threat of a Suffocation 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. At least one puzzle in this blog points to the value of realizing a mate threat can be almost as powerful as an actual mate! I have numerous examples, but that's a story for a different day.

Diagrams of some typical Suffocation Mates
Note that Suffocation Mates are quite similar to Smothered Mates. In the latter, a King finds all his potential flight squares filled by treasonous, friendly pieces and mate being delivered by an enemy Knight. Suffocations allow for occurrences where at least one flight square is covered by an opposing piece, but the King still finds himself unable to breathe because his BFFs (best friends forever, but forever just happened) have crowded too close. I will cover Smothered Mates next month.

Diagram 1. Typical smothered mates

Upper right-hand corner. The g7 pawn and g8 Rook serve as traitors, preventing His Majesty from fleeing via those squares. White's Bishop controla the h7 square while a Knight delivers mate from f7. Note that the Bishop on g6 also serves to protect the f7-Knight. This might be critical if Black's Queen or a Rook was in a position to capture on f7. Presumably White would have a sufficient material advantage if all Black received for the Queen or Rook was that singleton Knight.

Lower right-hand corner. The Queen on h3 threatens to capture on g2. Presuming that White is forced to remove Her Majesty from the board, then the Knight can deliver mate from either e2 or h3. Had Black's Knight been perched on g5 then the option of mating after captures on h3 is still available to Black.

Diagram 2. Similar to a Suffocation Mate

Technically not a suffocation mate because the Bishop is delivering the fatal blow. But obviously very similar. And a nice demonstration of the coordinating power of a Bishop and Knight for infiltrating weakened squares around the opponent's castled position. The e1-Rook clearly plays a critical role in preventing His Majesty from fleeing towards the center. A critical idea indeed!

Let the Puzzles Begin!

AnishOnYoutube (3040) - Jospem (3089) Live Chess chess.com, 2024.02.20

How did Anish quickly end this game.

Erneste, Inguna (2203) - Antonova, Lidiya (1762) Olympiad Women-40, 2012.08.28

How did White finish this game most efficiently. There are several mating nets but one that is far faster than the others.

Bednarski, Jacek B - Nouisseri, Olympiad-19 Preliminaries A 1970.09.07

Black just captured on f6. Unfortunate. 15...Nd7 would have graned Black equality. How did White finish this off?

Vilar Lopez, Monica (2175) - Regan, Natasha (2151) Saint Vincent zt (Women) 1999.05.20

Black's last move, 18...Nf6??, confined their own King to a tiny little box without much air. Suck the last breath out of the position.

Benko, Pal C (2450) - Hartman, Christer (2210) Gausdal Troll Masters 1984

White had a nearly decisive advantage. But committed a hideous blunder by moving their Knight from f4 to capture Black's Knight on g6. How did Black punish their much higher rated and very famous opponent?

Torres Caravaca, Joaquin - Alekhine, Alexander, simul, 1922

How did Alekhine quickly end this simul game?

Topalov, Veselin (2735) - Bareev, Evgeny (2714) Amber-rapid 13th, 2004.03.23

Black just blundered with 40...Kh7. They should have given the Exchange back with 40...Rd5 41.Bc4 and sought refuge in an opposite color Bishop endgame. How should Black have been immediately punished for their indiscretion in this rapid game.

Manthe, Barry - Alexopoulos, Georgios 2235 Philadelphia Int 4th 27.06.1993

White just played 21.Nf2 to block Black's threat of mate on d2. Instead, 21.Rf2 was better. Assessment: White faces difficulties but there is always a means to accelerate the decline and fall of the empire. Lead in the dinnerware is likely to be a bit slow for other than a multi-generation correspondence game. Given that White foolishly threw an accelerant on an already smoldering mess, how did Black finish things off?

Lessons learned:

A. From the onset it was clear that White's King was exposed to danger.

B. Black's King visually suffered from dark square weaknesses but White had no means to take advantage of that.

C. The amazing and concrete power of the double attack initiated with 23...Nf3.

D. When attacked, as Black's Queen was attacked by 24.Nh3, always look to create a greater threat. Do not precipitously overreact to your opponent's threat.

MacDonnell, George - Boden, Samuel London Int 1869 (three parts)

We are going to explore several versions of this game to point out how several ideas can interconnect to entirely dismantle the enemies game.

Part two of this three part series. 23...Rxd4! was played in the game. See if you can find an improvement!

Time to put some parts together. You will not be playing the improvement seen in the prior puzzle. Instead, you will be asked to recreate MacDonnell's play in the actual game. His play was excellent!

Adly, Ahmed (2494) - Laznicka, Viktor (2610) Wch U20 46th 2007.10.11

A lengthy and tricky problem. Best wishes on your journey.

His Majesty has seen enough, been choked enough. He is ready to call the whole thing off.

Related blogs: You can find an entire mini-universe 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 posted by 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

Knight Trapped by Pawns

Bishop

Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Bishop Dominated by Pawns Part 1 of 5
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

Bishop Trapped by Pawns

Rook

Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Fianchettoed Rook

Tower, aka Rook, Trapped by Knight and Pawns

Queen

Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Knights and Foot Soldiers Hunting Her Majesty

Queen Trapped by Knights and Pawns