Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Balestra's Mate

The primary purpose of this blog is to allow you to test your skills in applying Balestra's mate, not just trapping the King but putting an end to his miserable existence. The puzzles range from very easy to...well, it took a very strong player to see this over the board. And in some cases, miss it! 

The puzzles are provided after a brief discussion of a typical configuration of pieces that comprise Balestra's mate. You can skip the discussion and go directly to the puzzles by scrolling past the picture below.

Note that I prefer the phrase Balestra's configuration. Why? Because the mere threat of Balestra's configuration may be sufficient to compel significant concessions from the opponent. Concessions that may be sufficient to state that the game is effectively over. 

RUMINT (Rumored Intelligence) suggests that Balestra's mate is named after the Italian fencing term balestra, a sudden lunge forward to skewer the opponent. I am unaware of Bishops who would carry an epee, with the notable exception of the Knights Templar...and they were more likely to wield a lance, broad sword, dagger, and shield. But nobody appears to know more regarding the origin story of Balestra's mate. What can be stated for a "fact" is that Balestra's mate is the lesser-known cousin of Boden's mate. You can solve some puzzles with that configuration of king and pieces at Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Boden Configuration.

Diagram of a Typical Balestra's Mate
Most of the problems you are going to encounter below find the queen delivering several checks to establish the conditions for a mate delivered by the bishop. Attribute that to the nature of the queen and the geometry of chess. But once the queen covers the king's key flight squares, and some avenues might be blocked by the king's pieces, a bishop swoops in to deliver the coup de grâce. A key observation is that in the final position the queen and bishop operate on different colors and there are usually two squares between the queen and bishop. [As an obscure side note, but one that may tickle fans of chess variants, this mate would presumably be much more difficult to achieve in hexagonal chess where three bishops travel on different colors. And the king can travel on all three colors. See #88-90 at All 101 Reasons I Hate Chess.]

The bottom right-hand corner below depicts a typical Balestra's mate with the king trapped by the board's edge, the queen and bishop separated by two squares, and the bishop delivering mate. The Balestra's mate depicted in the top left corner indicates that the bishop does not necessarily have to be located two squares from the queen.

The diagram below serves to demonstrate that Balestra's mate can occur in the middle of the board with a bit of assistance from enemy pieces. I have removed all extraneous pieces from the board so that we can focus on the underlying construct. It only took two ill-placed black pieces to seal the black king's fate. There are also Balestra configurations that find the queen and bishop receiving support from their own pieces to entangle the enemy sovereign.

Let the Puzzles Begin! Comments for each puzzle include some random insights and any alternatives I found interesting.

Florea, Dan (1965) - Roederer, Kai (2205) Oberliga Baden 9596, 1995.11.05
Dan Florea is a German Federation FM born in 1977. His peak FIDE rating of 2325 was reached in June 2009. He is listed as retired on chess.com.

Kai Roederer is a strong German player born in 1970. His peak FIDE rating of 2270 was achieved in 1990, and I show no games for him in ChessBase after 1998. He is listed as retired on chess.com.

Black just captured a white knight on f5, no doubt fearing to run the king up the side of the board and towards White's pieces. How did White finish this off.

Ah, an easy start. That's the ticket.

Wahlbom, Magnus - Fridh, Anton, SWE-ch 1972
Magnus Wahlbom is a Swedish player born in 1945. He achieved a peak rating of 2375 in 1978 but never received a FIDE title. Still, he was a strong enough player to be privileged enough to play Larsen, Smyslov, and Kortschnoj in separate events. However, he lost to all of them even though he had the white pieces.

Anton Fridh is a Swedish player born in 1919 and achieved his peak rating at 2285 in the 1970s. His play seems to have been confined to his home nation.

Black just played ...Qe1, perhaps aiming for a perpetual with queen checks from e1 and h4. Missing White's threat.

Well, there was an extra first check to consider so perhaps that was a smidgen tougher than the first puzzle.

Niedermaier, Hans (2260) - Kraeussling, Andreas (2270) Bayern-chA 64th, 1993
Hans Niedermaier is a German FM born in 1948. His peak standard rating this century was 2295 in July 2007. His peak rating of all time was 2320 in 1987. He played several top players in his prime and in 1986 drew GM Vlastimil Hort in Bundesliga 8687.

Andreas Kraeussling is a German FM born in 1946. His peak standard rating was 2355 in 1999. His strongest win was against IM Grigory Bogdanovich, rated 2430.

White just captured a powerful rook on the h4 square. What is Black's best rejoinder?

Our first temptation is to give check. But our chess mantra is to evaluate all checks, captures and threats before moving.

Prakash, GB (2453) - Prasad, Devaki V (2440) IND-ch 2001.06.06
G B Prakash is an Indian IM born in 1972. His peak rating was 2453 in 2001. He appears to have retired from active play in 2013.

Devaki Prasad is an Indian IM born in 1962. His peak rating was 2480 in January 1993. He won the Indian CC in 1990 and 1991 and was the Commonweath CC in 1986. He was certified as a FIDE Trainer in 2019. Perhaps his most famous results were victories against Mikhail Tal and Lev Alburt in the 1987 Interzonal.

White's king has been driven far from home only to meet an untimely demise.

A lovely attraction sacrifice to block a potential flight square.

Murphy, Benjamin - Egan, Bill, AUS-chT II 1995
Benjamin Murphy played in several Australian tournaments in 1994 and 1995. Of the 39 games I found they scored 9W-9D-21L. That included very few FIDE rated players, but there was a loss to someone rated 882.  

Bill Egan also played for Australia and was born in 1937. His peak FIDE standard rating was 1795 in April 2009. He is listed on FIDE’s pages as a CM. Odd, that. It doesn't seem to align with the peak rating.

White just moved their queen from a4 to b3, increasing the pressure on Black's f-pawn. How did Black demonstrate the error of White's ways?

Kings on the rim ain't so happy either.

Yanofsky, Daniel - Reshevsky, Samuel,  Dallas 1957
Daniel Yanofsky was a Canadian GM born in Poland in 1925. His family moved to Canada when he was less than a year old. He won the Canadian CC eight times and was the Commonwealth's first-ever GM! And in 1946 he won the brilliancy prize for his defeat of Mikhail Botvinnik at Groningen 1946. He earned his qualifying second GM norm at the 1964 Tel Aviv Olympiad.

Samuel Reshevsky was a Polish chess prodigy who relocated to the USA where he became a leading GM with eight US CC, tied with Fischer. He regularly contended for the World CC from the 1930s to the 1960s, tying for third in the 1948 World CC tournament and tying for second in the 1953 Candidates.

Black just made the very logical appearing move of ...Kd7 to control the queening square of the White e-pawn. It is likely Black was setting a small trap as a player of Reshevsky's skill clearly saw Black's best response. But had White been careless and plays a line such as 50. Qf8?? there was a perpetual.

Promotion proved invaluable! Just in a non-standard way.

Abdusattorov, Nodirbek (2651) - Golizadeh, Asghar (2455) Early Titled Tuesday 2022.02.08
Nodirbek Abdusattorov is an Uzbek GM born in 2004. He earned the GM title at 13 years old. In 2021 he won the World Rapid CC, the youngest ever world CC in any time format. That record was originally held by Magnus for blitz. His peak rating of 2769 was achieved in July 2024. His peak ranking was earlier in the year when he reached #4 on the list in April. In January of this year, he tied for first in the Tata Steel tournament but lost in the tiebreak semifinals.

Asghar Golizadeh is an Iranian GM born in 1990. He crossed the 2500 threshold for GM consideration in November 2010 and has bounced between 2450 and just over 2500 since then. He was the Iranian CC in 2012. He has focused on his activities as a chess trainer since 2010. Interestingly, he has a P.H.D in Exercise Physiology.

White has an extra piece but in Titled Tuesday blitz events the initiative and the clock are often more important than mere material considerations.  How did White efficiently close this out?

Helena, one heckuva h-pawn, clearly threw herself into the fray. Lest we forget, let's mention Francesca and Gloria, White's f- and g-pawns, who were the unsung heroes of this finish. 

Areshchenko, Alexander (2650) - Bocharov, Dmitry (2569) EU-ch 9th, 2008.05.01
Alexander Areshchenko is a Ukrainian GM born in 1986 who received the title in 2002. He won the Ukrainian CC in 2005. His peak rating was 2720 in December 2012 at which time he was ranked as the #28 player in the world. Though he announced his retirement in 2017 he has continued to play since then and is still rated 2613 as of July 2024.

Dmitry Bocharov is a Russian GM born in 1982 who received the title in 2003. His peak rating was 2647 in January 2009 at which time he was ranked as the #77 player in the world. In 2008 he won the 10th World University CC and has won other notable events such as the 14th Chigorin Memorial in 2006.

Black has a very dangerous passer on d2. But an endangered king in the center of the board.  How did White press home the advantage?

Assistance from numerous white pieces, but still a recognizable Balestra's mate.

Ruszin, Anna (1796) - Kiraly, Zoltan (1680) HUN-chT2 Szechenyi 0203, 2003.04.06
Anna Ruszin is a Hungarian player born in 1990. Her peak rating was 2139 in May 2015, and she is listed as retired by chess.com.

Zoltan Kiraly is a Hungarian player born in 1962. Their peak rating of 2075 was reached in March 2011. They are listed as retired, and I found no games after 2018.

White has stumbled into one of the Falkbeer Countergambit blunders found in hundreds of thousands of games on lichess. Just goes to show that even players rated almost 1800 FIDE need to know their stuff if they are going to play a King's Gambit as White.

How did this game end? (Other than the obvious fact that Black must have won or there wouldn't be a puzzle here.)

A brief reminder of some tactical guidelines. Look at all checks. Then look at captures. Captures that include checks often merit special attention. But don't assume that a check is the best move just because it involves a check. Sometimes it is better to hold off.

Steiner, Herman - Rellstab, Ludwig Sr, Reggio Emilia 1951
Herman Steiner was an American IM born in 1905 and received his title in 1950, only five years before his early death. He won the US CC in 1948 and lost a close match to Reuben Fine in 1932 by 5½–4½, though two later matches were far more in Fine's favor. Steiner was best known for his efforts promoting chess as a tournament organizer and as a columnist for the LA Times. Personally, I find it very interesting that he was active as a boxer for a while. Had he been born in our era he might have relished mixed chess-boxing events.

Ludwig Rellstab Was a German IM born in 1904 who received his title in 1950. Then in 1951 he was awarded the International Arbiter title. He won the German CC in 1942 and earned two bronze medals, team and individual, in the 1936 unofficial Munich Chess Olympiad.  

Black spotted a mate in one idea as the clocks approached the first time control and played 38...Qf2, threatening mate on h4. But Black overlooked a mate in four. Four for the other player. So sad, too bad.

One bishop rules the day while the other rues it.

Karttunen, Mika - Heinimaki, Leo, Valkeakoski We ValkS 1996
Mika Karttunen is a Finnish IM born in 1981. He won Finland's CC seven times and earned his title in 2001. His peak rating was 2497 in October 2023 but that has dropped slightly to 2479 as of July 2024. So, he is close to the 2500 requirement for a GM title, but it is unclear to me if he has more than one GM norm as of this writing. Given his peak rating the only surprise is that he doesn't have two or three norms.

Leo Heinimaki is a Finnish player born in 1948. He achieved his peak rating of 2109 in 2000. He retired from active play shortly after the turn of the century.

Black just captured a pawn on e4. A fatal miscalculation. They should have captured the pawn on c3 instead.

How did White deliver mate in eight moves?

Two knights on the rim, but only one participant in the final act of this play. And even that knight did not move, merely provided critical defense to her majesty as she drove the enemy king into a net.

Stock, Juergen - Chandler, Patrick, Oberliga Ost-B 0102, 2001.10.07
Juergen Stock is a German chess player born in 1956. He achieved his peak rating of 2074 in 2007.

Patrick Chandler is a German chess player born in 1968. He achieved his peak rating of 2308 in 2003.

How did Black increase pressure on White that led to a game-ending mistake?

Not very often you get to see hogs appear on White's second rank only to then indulge in self-immolation that brings down the final curtain on the white king.

Meneses, Dario (2300) - Diaz, Franck, Bogota Lat Cup 1992
Dario Meneses is a Colombian FM born in 1956. He has retired from active play. He achieved his peak rating of 2300 in 1992.

Franck Diaz is a French player born in 1965. He achieved his peak rating of 2204 in January 2007 but did not yet have a FIDE rating at the time of this game.

Black just played their queen from c7 to b6, creating a mating threat on b2. But one-move threats rarely intimidate players rated 2300. And this move was a catastrophe. From having a winning position, Black is now only slightly better.

How did White crush their opponent's dreams of an upset?

This had to be demoralizing. Black played a brilliant game up until the point where it mattered. And then collapsed like a neutron star.

Herman, Diego (2212) - Izoria, Zviad (2565) Internet Section 18-A, 2003.03.18
Diego Herman is an Austrian chess player born in 1972. Their peak rating of 2265 was reached in 1997. They are retired from active play.

Zviad Izoria was originally from Georgia but transferred to the United States in 2013. Born in 1984 he achieved his GM title in 2002. His peak rating was 2660 in July 2006 when he was ranked #48 in the world. He is currently rated 2602. In 2018 he was good enough to beat both Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura at the 2018 US CC.

How quickly can you spot the mate Black found in this blitz game?

Black has a decisive material advantage and the move when this problem started. But finding the most efficient conclusion saves time and energy for future activities.

Puljek Salai, Zorica (2200) - Stanic, Jadranka (2075) CRO-chT2, 1996
Zorica Puljek-Salai is a Croatian WIM born in 1965. Her peak rating of 2276 was achieved in September 1999. She is listed as retired although she was playing some rated blitz games as recently as October 2022. But no standard time control games since October 2005.

Jadranka Stanic is a Croatian player born in 1967. Her peak rating of 2135 was achieved in 1994. They are listed as retired.

Black just moved their knight from c6 to e7, blocking the check delivered by the white bishop on d6. They would have done better to sacrifice an exchange by placing the rook on e7 thereby opening e8 as a flight square for the king. Black's king currently has no legal moves.

How are you going to replicate White's play in the actual game?

When the enemy king is on the menu it's sometimes necessary to bring more friends to the party. That's okay, there is plenty to share as His Majesty's goose is cooked over a growing fire.