Smothered Mate
A knight delivers mate to a king boxed in by its own pieces.
A smothered mate checkmates a king that is completely surrounded by its own pieces, so a single knight check cannot be blocked or escaped. See the smothered mate pattern page for the classic setup.
Related terms
Practice this
Real puzzles from our archive that train the Smothered Mate pattern.
Browse 1,260 puzzles tagged Smothered Mate →