Before we start with a new lesson about the pin we are going to repeat the four things that we have learned about the pin in our previous lessons:

1. Remember the difference between an absolute and a relative pin.

		An absolute pin  Black is not allowed to move the knight on c6.
		A relative pin Black is allowed to move the knight, but then (in this case) White will capture the queen. See also the lesson about the pin.

2. The simple pin

Winning a piece  White is able to pin the knight by 32.Rd1 and can capture this knight on the next move 33.Rxd4+.

3. Attacking a pinned piece

In the diagram on the left White is able to pin the piece, but this piece can be defended by the b-pawn. White is still able to capture this piece, because he is able to attack the piece: 27.Bb4 b6 28.d4 Kg7 29.dxc5 See Attacking a pinned piece

4. A pinned piece isn’t a real defender

The knight is pinned. This allows White to capture the rook: 26.Qxb7 See the A pinned piece cannot be counted as a defender lesson

Next we are going to pay some attention to Chess Tactics explained.

The evergreen game is (like the immortal game) another famous chess game from Adolf Anderssen. The game was played against Jean Dufresne in 1852 and can also be found in the ICOFY database that we have used during one of our previous lessons. The name evergreen means something like “Forever Young”.
The whole game can be replayed below, but I think that the most interesting part of the game are the last moves starting from the position in the diagram below.



This is a mate in four exercise. Can you solve it, or do you have to look at the full game?
The mating pattern is rather nice. Are you already familiar with the Immortal Game or do you want to proceed with revisiting the Pin.

Let’s have a look at the next diagram taken from a real game played in 2007. It is White’s turn to move.

   

Before reading further try to figure this out by yourself.

Looking at the candidate move 9.Nxe5 we have to conclude that we only have gained a pawn. The king is defending f7. This prevents the knight fork 10.Nxf7 attacking both the queen as well as the rook. More important: It is now Black’s turn to move and he can prevent our plan by playing 9…Qxd1.

Let’s have a look at the candidate move 9.Qxd8+. This move has to be followed by 9…Kxd8. After 10.Nxe5 it seems that Black is still able to defend f7 by 10…Be6, but after 11.Bxe6 fxe6 we can play a succesfull 12.Nf7+.
After 10…Ke8 the line 11.Nxf7 Rf8 12.Ng5 is interesting, and we have to look at the possible knight fork at c7 after a move like Nb5.

Try to find this kind of combinations in your own games. If a combination doesn’t seem to work try to rearrange the order of the moves.

The next lesson is about the Evergreen Game.

Original 4 Responses on CTL to “Finding combinations”

1. 
   THOMAS
   November 23rd, 2009 at 5:28 pm
   Whats preventing the knight fork 10.Nxf7 when white has support from the c4 knight? Also how is 12.Nf7+ possible when the king never moved?
2. 
   Chess Teacher
   November 24th, 2009 at 10:29 am
   @THOMAS
   White has support from the c4 knight, but please keep in mind that Black is only allowed to do one move at the time. Please note that f7 can be defended by playing …Be6.
   The mentioned move 12.Nf7+ is possible because the king has moved (and had to move after 9.Qxd8+) 9…Kxd8. Now after 10.Nxe5 the move 10…Be6 doesn’t help anymore, because of 11.Bxe6 fxe6 12.Nf7+
3. 
   THOMAS
   November 24th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
   I concur.Excellent website dude.
4. 
   THOMAS
   November 24th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
   Of course I concur. Excellent Website.

In addition to the smothered mate, in which the mated king is unable to move because all the surrounding squares are occupied by his own pieces, there are a lot of mating patterns in which the king is only partly smothered by his own pieces.

Let’s have a look at the next diagram and try to figure out how to exploit that Black’s king is almost smothered.



The solution is visible by selecting the text between the two brackets.

[ 1. Rh4+ gxh4 2. g4# ]

Remember that if you succeed in taking away all the surrounding squares of your opponent’s king a simple check will be sufficient to win the game. Taking away these squares can be done by attacking these squares or by forcing your opponent to place his pieces on these squares.

The next chess lesson is about finding combinations.

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Original 3 responses to “Smothering the King”

1. 
   Arthur Marquis
   October 7th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
   Sorry I am just learning annotation, but I was curious about your solution….
   Why not
   white pawn to g4 forcing the king to h4 then bring white queen to h2 on the diagonal? same amount of moves
2. 
   Chess Teacher
   October 8th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
   There is no white queen on the board. The queen on c7 is a black queen.
   I think that I have to replace the Leipzig chess set by another one.
3. 
   Chess Teacher
   October 8th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
   I am now using the Alpha chess set.

The immortal game is one of the most famous games ever played. It was played in 1851 as an informal game between Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky.

According to Wikipedia:

Played between the two great players at the Simpson’s-in-the-Strand Divan in London, the immortal game was an informal one played during a break in a formal tournament. Kieseritzky was very impressed when the game was over, and telegraphed the moves of the game to his Parisian chess club. The French chess magazine La Régence published the game in July 1851. This game was later nicknamed “The Immortal Game” in 1855 by the Austrian Ernst Falkbeer.

As you can see in the figure above the game is so famous that the position after the 20th move is used as an illustration on this 1984 stamp from Suriname.

The Wikipedia article is fully annotated, but it may be a nice exercise if you first annotate the game yourselves, since the game contains a lot of nice combinations. If you are not familiar with this opening have a look at the lesson about the King’s Gambit.


The next lesson is about Smothering the King, but you may also be interested in the Evergreen Game.

In this lesson I will show you the Mortimer trap, also known as the Mortimer Variation of the Berlin Defense.
The next lesson is about the Immortal Game, but you may also be interested in the previous lesson about the Kieninger Trap.

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This post gives an overview of all the Chess Lessons currently on this site that are intended for the players at an advanced level.

1. Colle – O’Hanlon, Nice 1930
2. Rook pawn versus rook endgame
3. Rook pawn versus rook draws
4. Rook and pawn versus rook endgame in WikiPedia
5. Fischer – Taimanov (1971), a famous Bishop versus Knight endgame
6. Zugzwang
7. Make a plan
8. Kasparov – Topalov (1999)