![queen king checkmate queen king checkmate](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WOyqkm8w5no/maxresdefault.jpg)
I was completely losing the game so I threw a hail marry in the endgame sacrificing my Queen in hopes that my opponent wouldn’t stop and think about taking the Queen with the King or the Rook and just take with the Rook, and they did. You now know a proven method for checkmating with a king and queen against a lone king. This example is from a game I recently had on. Black’s dark squared Bishop prevents White’s King from capturing the queen, forcing the capture with White’s Knight and also trapping the King. Greco also uses a Queen sacrifice here to smother White’s King in the corner trapped by White’s Knight. This is the earliest smothered mate that was recorded. White then delivers checkmate with the Knight. The Rook then traps the King in the corner of the chessboard. White sacrifices his Queen that must be taken by Black’s Rook because the Knight prevent’s Black’s King from capturing. It's not easy (and yet I've seen many 1900+ who need six moves with two queens from a position that should require two). I mentioned above that using a Queen sacrifice is commonly used to perform this checkmate, here is a perfect example of this. And this challenge from Five Days to Better Chess: Create a position that requires four moves to checkmate with two queens and a king against a lone king. We show different variations of this mate below.
![queen king checkmate queen king checkmate](https://wx2.sinaimg.cn/thumb150/005OEWLily1gr8nyiphbng30cs0ggkjs.gif)
There are different versions of the Smothered Mate, such as the Philidor’s Legacy. The Smothered Mate was invented by Tommy Smothers, of “Smothers Brothers” fame. It’s one the most satisfying mates to give as well as one of the more brutal ways to be beaten. The King ends up with no legal moves because it gets trapped by its own pieces ironically, hence the term, “smothered”. Example #3 is from a game I had yesterday.Ī Queen sacrifice is also commonly used as the first check to force the King to become trapped by it’s own piece that must capture the Queen. I added another example of the Smothered Mate.