Smothered Mate In 7!? The Blackburne Shilling Gambit

Hey guys....this is @IAMDAGOAT123456789 and today I will be showing you a simple yet powerful trap called the Blackburne Shilling Gambit. If white falls for this trap, they can lose the game in only 7 moves.....and if you are a beginner, I recommend taking a look at this blog as you once you learn it will help you just cruise through your opponents, and will help you gain online rating

Motives;

- Requires piece development

- Includes a sacrifice

-Ends with a smothered mate

-played from black

The first moves of the trap are 1.e4 and you then play 1.e5 also known as the kings pawn opening....this is a very common if not the most common set-up in all of chess. This is played so often because it allows for the queen and bishop to move on the 2nd move and also is controlling the center by defending 2 squares;

After this, a known and common response is 2.Nf3 or 2 Knight to f3 to gain control and attack the main squares.... There are many different variations or responses you could make as black but for this trap specifically, you play 2.Nc6 or you play your knight to c6 on the 2nd move, there are many famous games that come from these 1st 2 moves and here is a diagram displaying it...

After, white must play 3.bc4 or bishop to c4. This position right here is known as the Italian Game and is probably the most famed set of moves in all of chess. Many historic games have come from these moves as there are many different variations and traps that can originate from this....but after, you play this rather odd move, knight d4 which seems like an odd place to move your knight and especially you lose control over your pawn...

After this, expect white to take the hanging pawn as it is free material, and this might seem like an inaccuracy but in reality, white is the one who is going to fall for the trap because then after, you play Qg5 or queen to g5 as black. This seems like a strange move as all your doing is attacking the white pawn and also your allowing yourself to get forked the next move which looks costly at first glance;

After this, white comes to a realization that they can play Nxf7 or Knight takes the pawn on f7 which is a fork between the rook and the queen. It might seem like escaping this from your perspective (black's) would be hard, but in this trap, the next move that is played is QxG2 or Queen takes the pawn on g2. As you can see, this is a forceful attack on the rook and white realizes that if they take black's rook instead saving their own, it can be costly.

After this, white comes to a unfortunate realization that if they don't save their own rook, they will be losing so now, you should expect white to play Rf1 or Rook to f1 so that they can protect their rook and if any thing else is played, Queen can capture and it'll be mate. And so after this, you play this very aggressive and obvious move, Qe4+ or queen to e4 check. After this, white has 2 options...

As you can see, the tables have now turned as white is in a VERY uncomfortable spot as the king is now surrounded by their own pieces...now there are two options for white at this point....1 is Qe2 or queen to e2. This blocks the attack from the queen, but sadly, can just be captured by the knight like this;

And after this, black is completely crushing white as now they are up a queen and to add onto that, White's king is surrounded by their own pieces which makes white in a very losing position and its a matter of moves before white resigns or gets mated.

The other option is for white to play the "seemingly" better move, be2 or bishop e2...this looks like a great save at first, but as you will see in this diagram, it was surprisingly a worse move for white;

Tsk....Smothered mate...if you don't know what a smothered mate is, a smothered mate is basically a checkmate where the white king cant move anywhere because they are surrounded by their own pieces. But you may ask, "Cant the bishop just take the knight?"

Wrong! if you look closely, you will see that the bishop cant take the knight because then, the black queen is checking the king making this an illegal move( I made a blog on this which you can check out below) So this is in fact, mate!

Fun Facts,

- Founded by Joseph Blackburne

- Also know as the Kostíc Gambit

- Was Commonly played by legend William Steintz

Also, if you liked it, please comment if you have any concerns, questions, criticism or just plain liked it, PLEASE leave a comment down below it really helps especially since it took  a lot of time so I would appreciate it and if you liked this one Im sure you'll like my other ones and so here is the link Click This

Thank you,

@IAMDAGOAT123456789