Unusual Tactics: Smothers Brothers Mate

Today Chess Indeed launches an exciting new series, Unusual Tactics, in which we spotlight rare tactical motifs and try and come up with ridiculous names for them.

Today we look at what seems (at first glance) to be an ordinary run-of-the-mill Smothered Mate.

Every woodpusher knows the correct mating technique here: knight discovers double-check on h3, queen sham-sacs on g1, knight "seals the coffin" on f2, and everyone's home in time to watch Matlock.

But in this particular case, g1 is guarded twice, which means the usual method won't work. A second knight is needed (the "brother" of the first knight, if you will) to finish the job: 1...Nh3+ 2.Kh1 Qg1+ 3.Ng1 Nhf2+ 4.Rf2 Nf2#.

Since the first knight needed his brother's help to complete the smothering, the obvious name for this mate is the Smothers Brothers Mate--and I hereby claim credit for this absurd moniker, should it ever find its way into one of the more disreputable chess tomes of, say, GM Raymond "the Penguin" Keene.

Next week: the Porky Pig