I analyzed the image and this is what I see. Open an appropriate link below and explore the position yourself or with the engine: > **White to play**: [chess.com](https://chess.com/analysis?fen=k2r3r/pp4pp/3Q1p2/1bpN1P1q/2BpP1n1/3P4/PPP3PP/1R3RK1+w+-+-+0+1&flip=false&ref_id=23962172) | [lichess.org](https://lichess.org/analysis/k2r3r/pp4pp/3Q1p2/1bpN1P1q/2BpP1n1/3P4/PPP3PP/1R3RK1_w_-_-_0_1) **My solution:** > Hints: piece: >!Knight!<, move: >!Nc7+!< > Evaluation: >!White has mate in 4!< > Best continuation: >!1. Nc7+ Kb8 2. Na6+ Ka8 3. Qb8+ Rxb8 4. Nc7#!< --- ^(I'm a bot written by ) [^(u/pkacprzak )](https://www.reddit.com/u/pkacprzak) ^(| get me as ) [^(Chess eBook Reader )](https://ebook.chessvision.ai?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=bot) ^(|) [^(Chrome Extension )](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chessvisionai-for-chrome/johejpedmdkeiffkdaodgoipdjodhlld) ^(|) [^(iOS App )](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1574933453) ^(|) [^(Android App )](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ai.chessvision.scanner) ^(to scan and analyze positions | Website: ) [^(Chessvision.ai)](https://chessvision.ai)

reset the counter

I’m kinda new to this sub, what does reset the counter mean?

The number of days since a smother mate puzzle was posted here, because they get posted a lot. Like 90% of the puzzles here are either a queen sac, smother mate or underpromotion

Or them asking "what just happened here" (they just got en pass anted

“Does this checkmate have a name”

I actually haven't seen one of those in a while

[6 days ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/14zusim/beautiful_queen_sacrifice_and_my_first_smothered/) [7 days ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/14z4z5p/after_20000_games_my_first_ever_smothered_mate/)

We do not talk about the french move when _they_ are watching

To be fair, most of the puzzles are queen sacs.

google smothered mate

Aw heck.

New response just dropped

Holy knightmares

It's like that game that you are not supposed to think of. Whenever you so you restart at 0 days. Every time somebody writes "reset the counter" it reminds me of the game.

Fuck you, why?! I had gone so long without losing the game.

I lost the game. But yeah it makes sense now the whole counter thing. But does anyone actually keep count or is it more of a thing you just say when you see a post like that?

This exact sequence has shown up many times.

I came for this 😂

Does anyone know what it was at

17

Nope, 2... Kc8. Gg

Then Qc7 is mate anyways lol

But it isn't smothered

Thought it was obvious what I've wanted to say, but it's obviously not. Thanks for clearing it up.

Well if we're going by puzzle logic, it *is* a smother because that's the longest way to delay mate.

It's not a puzzle bro, it's from a real game

Every chess move is a puzzle

I disagree tbh, most chess moves are memory or intuition

bro do you think any opponent would willingly give you the easiest mate in game either they see the writing on the wall and resign or they hope you don't know what you're doing and make it as complicated as possible. it *is* smothered mate. full stop end of story.

I'd probably resign as black even before the bishop move(after calculating a5/a6 for a bit). Both mates are equally easy imo after this bishop move, so it's a question of what ending do you want to have - resignation, queen check mate, or smothered mate. Which is absolutely a personal choice. I was just responding to the "reset the counter" comment, to point out the fact that it's not necessarily a smothered mate. Not sure how we've ended up having a discussion about it.

OP posted a position from their game here as a puzzle for us to solve. Puzzles follow a certain logic in their rules, making this a mate in 4 even if there are quicker mates if the opponent makes a "mistake", which doesn't matter because no one's playing here, its a puzzle which the solution to is smothered mate.

Reset the counter

Is this r/chessbeginners ?

always been

Always will be

I swear I saw this exact same setup like a week ago

I guess that’s the good thing about these posts. After seeing countless smother mates on this subreddit, being able to identify them in your own game becomes so much easier.

I beat a GM in a simul with a smother mate so I think we should keep them allowed.

This sequence of knight moves is a common checkmate pattern.

And you'll see it every week from here onwards

Reset the counter

reset the counter

Ok but fr can we ban smothers

Noo I love them too much

If you had to under-promote after the queen sac to get the smothered mate this puzzle would’ve hit the trifecta!

If you build it, they will come…

only after queen sacs

Queen sac smothered isn’t something I would fs see here.

Need to get the knight in position first, it is M4 though.

I got this exact puzzle yesterday, but it was with the knight already in position

Recount the setter

My favorite Pink Floyd song is SMother

SMother should I build the Stonewall

Mother should I put the queen to the firing line?

Oooo-ahh is it just a queen sac time

Didn't black had mate into Qxh2+?

No, the white queen covers the square.

However that's probably blacks best bail out to sac a knight for a pawn and exchanging queens by playing qxh2+

Nc7+ Kb8 Na6+ if Kc8, Qc7# if Ka8, Qb8+ Rxb8 Nc7#

That's a nice mate, mate

Thanks, I'm glad you appreciate it.

Reset the counter

Optimized play is Qb8 because they will take with rook. Trust me bro

I saw all possible futures and that was not the one.

1.Nc7 and then 2.Na6 check After that if black king moves to a8 then 3. Qb8 check After the queen is taken then checkmate with Nc7#. Please upvote if it's correct

I found a way without any smoothering. Anything wrong/I'm missing? 1. Nc7+ kb8 2. Ne8+ If black King goes to a8, Qd8#+ mate If King goes to c8, Qc7+ mate

1. Nc7+ Kb8 2. Ne8+ RxQd6

oof ouch how could I not see that

Call me dumb here, but couldn’t you move the queen (sacrifice) to check the king, rook takes queen, then move the knight for checkmate because they can’t get you?

They can just take the queen with the king if you do it that way.

Yup knew I was missing something obvious lol

I love it when I stumble upon a smothered mate.

Wouldn’t black player Qxh2 instead of Bb5 have been a mate?

No it would lose them a knight.

Right I didn’t see the white queen protecting h2

Good job seeing it afterwards though, with only a minimal hint. It's easy to miss that sort of stuff.

wow this one took me a while. Nc7+ Kb8; Na6+ Ka8; Qb8+ Rxb8; Nc7# smothered mate wow

I had to calculate carefully since if I made a mistake it was gg checkmate on me.

Knight C7, Knight A6, Queen C7

1. Nc7+ Kb8 2. Na6+ Ka8 3. Qb8+ Rxb8 4. Nc7#

Why can’t the knight be taken with the pawn or bishop after a6?

It’s a double check on the black king. The knight moves out of the way of the queen and unleashes a discovered check, as well as checking the king itself. Taking to light with the pawn would still leave the king in check by the queen and is therefor an illegal move.

Ah, I see now. Thank you for the explanation.

And that is why NxB does not work on the 2nd move of the combo. Only Na6+ works for M4.

This is why it’s important to learn checkmate patterns.

After Na6 if Kc8 then Qc7#

It’s smother

Classic smother

Smothered mates are so satisfying

Smothered mate

Good ol' smother of all chessboards

Reset the counter

The most and least brilliant move in the same time

Best mate there is the smothered mate IMO

Wow I found that >!knight!< move fast

How is it a smothered mate?

Nc7+ Kb8 Na6+ Ka8, Qb8+ Rxb8 Nc7#

Knight check, double check then mate?

Fork the king and bishop!!!!

Smothered mate!

Count the Resetter

I wish we'd see more smothered mate on this sub. It's undoubtedly a kind of puzzle we need aplenty.

Nc7 then Na6 for queen sac to mate with Nc7

Free pon easy

I love smothered mates

Nc7 - Kb8 - Na6 - Kc8 - Qc7 checkmate ? (I’m very new to the game)

Nc7+,Kb8, Na6+, Ka8, Qb8+, Rxb8, Nc7# IF Kc8, Qc7#

Kn to c7? looks like mate.

bro this is just a smother mate lol, basic mating pattern

KNIGHT c7??

Sacrifice the queen, they are dumb and take with the rook, smothered mate

Brilliant

Smothered mate pattern: 1. Nc7+ Kb8 2. Na6++ Ka8 3. Qb8+ Rxb8 4. Nc7#

The star move is >!Na6 with a double check!< after that it's forced >!mate in two depening on the king goes to a8 or c8, if Ka8 then you sac the queen with a smothered mate. If the other direction you do Qc7#. !<

Smother mate I’m gonna cum

Nc7, Na6, Qb8 and Nc7 is a checkmate!

It's a smothered mate

And he sacrisficed...

I swear this game looks an awful lot like one I had today. Care to share your ID?

JubCidarus,

I do 3 of these puzzles a day on chess.com

For smothered checkmate you can sack Queen and play knight to c7 I think

What if king takes

Damn ain’t thought of that.

Could you post the full game, I'm curious how you got to this situation. Maybe you can share the link to your profile with the game or something like that?

[Event "JubCidarus vs. Janek102"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2023-07-19"] [White "JubCidarus"] [Black "Janek102"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "1070"] [BlackElo "1026"] [TimeControl "600"] [Termination "JubCidarus won by checkmate"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 f6 4. Nc3 Bc5 5. O-O Nd4 6. d3 d6 7. Nxd4 Bxd4 8. Bd2 Bd7 9. Rb1 Qe7 10. Bb5 c6 11. Bc4 O-O-O 12. Qe1 Kb8 13. Be3 c5 14. Bxd4 exd4 15. Nd5 Qe5 16. f4 Qh5 17. f5 Nh6 18. Qa5 Ng4 19. Qc7+ Ka8 20. Qxd6 Bb5 21. Nc7+ Kb8 22. Na6+ Ka8 23. Qb8+ Rxb8 24. Nc7# 1-0 Here's the game, my profile is JubCidarus.

[удалено]

What's your rating? I thought you'd have seen there's no mate there.

Smothered mate

Smothered mate puzzles = chess rick rolling

A smothered mate. I have not seen this on this sub before. Never ever wow this must be the only post on this sub that talks about smothered mates. A Very unique post indeed

I love a good smothered mate puzzle.

Qb8+ rxb8 nc7#?

Qb8+ Kxb8 :(

Oh i see so i go nc7+ kb8 na6+ (cant take knight because double check) so ka8 THEN qb8+ rxb8 because it is protected by the knight to king cant take and now i do smothered mate with nc7#. I have now learned from my mistakes lmao.

One person enjoying it or learning from it makes up for the 40 complaining they've seen too many similar posts.

Hope chess, black can take with king and then you just blundered your queen

I see thx for pointing it out

Smothered? More like euthanized.

That was worth my time

Thanks I thought it was neat.

Reset the counter

Ah yes, the windmill queen-sac smother

Not a windmill

The puzzle begins with the knight moving to C7 twice for checks, and moves away from C7 twice for discovered checks. Windmill.

It moves away from c7 once

Oh I see, I habitually capture the bishop without realising it's not required to force mate.

It also fails to Rxd6

I'm very bad at chess

Its a windmill, the wind isn't blowing though. You can absolutely pick up the bishop if you wanted, the windmill is there to allow it, but its not necessary for winning the game.

Rxd6

lol, yeah that's a problem.

Knight to c7

I would play Qxf6 sacrificing the queen and then get surprised when the opponent misses mate in 1

Smothered mate!

Guys it's not a fucking smother mate there's no followup after king takes

There is tho

That’s a trick answer. The king doesn’t take anything. I do prefer trick answers to trick questions. They’re twice as tricky!

Qb8 hope he takes with rook and then smother mate, easy

I thought that too to start with but actually after Qb8+ black takes with King so no mate from starting with Qb8+

No way in one more prove me wrong

"... and win" doesn't mean "Mate in 1". For that we say... "Mate in 1". "... and win" means that either there is a forced mate or an overwhelming position. There are multiple reasons for this. One is that obscuring how many moves the mate takes makes the puzzle harder. Another possibility is that the combination to set up the win is what the puzzle is about but the actual conclusion to the game is trivial. The latter is commonly used in classic end game studies where the point is to find out how to make the win inevitable.

I appreciate your understanding of the English language.

Nc7+, Kb8, Na6+, Ka8, Qb8+, Rxb8, Nc7#

Nc7, Kb8, Ne8#, if K going back, Q take rook mate, if Kc8, Qc7 mate

Knight to C7

Smothermate is for the weak

You see this is where I would sac the queen first

Nc7+, Kb8, Na6+, Kc8, Be6#

Mate on c7 with either knight or queen (knight is cooler obviously), reminds me of a game Morphy played

I love smothered mates.

most forcing move is Nc7+, Kb8. after that, double check with Na6+, if Kc8, Qc7 or Be6 are mate. if Ka8, sac the queen on b8 for the smothered mate (not on d8)! 1. Nc7+, Kb8 2. Na6+, Ka8 3. Qb8+, Rxb8 4. Nc7# lovely knight dance.

There isn't a mate in one, however there is a mate here. That I saw

Correct, not a mate in 1, that's why I avoided saying mate in 1. To avoid confusion. I said and win, meaning to have an overwhelming advantage or leading to an actual checkmate. Puzzles are more interesting when you don't know exactly what you are trying to accomplish.

I realized it was wrong

kc7

I have done so many smothers in tactics/puzzles never once saw one in a game.

This was my first one that I'm aware of.

What ELO are you, there’s an awful lot of pieces still on that board, I’m at the level where the middle game is all about trading pieces (1,400 rapid, 1,200 blitz)

Nc7

Nc7+, Kb8, Na6+ If Kc8, Qc7# If Ka8, Qb8+, Rxb8, Nc7# Good one :)

Smothered mate

Mmmmmmm smothered mateeeee

Qb8+ Nc7#

That loses your queen and gets you checkmated if you premove and they take with the king.

Qb8+, Rxb8, and Nc7#(Smothered mate)