Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Blind Swine Mate

The primary purpose of this blog is to allow you to test your skills in applying the Blind Swine 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! To close the post, we'll also look at an illustrative game that demonstrates why a pair of rooks are sometimes better than a queen if they can operate on the 7th rank, and then the 6th rank as seen in this example.

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

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

 On a side note, one might refer to them as seeing-eye swine. Why? Well, when I've planted rooks on the seventh, I often felt they played the rest of the game themselves. It seemed that easy.

Diagram of a Typical Blind Swine Mate
Rumor has it that Polish chess legend Dawid Janowski coined the colorful expression "blind swine". My take is that he was poking fun at some player who had a pair of powerful rooks on the seventh rank (is that akin to the bliss of seventh heaven) and yet could not deliver checkmate or even victory. Of course, IM Jeremy Silman renamed these colorful critters as "hogs rooting on the seventh." Why? Because they chew up everything on their path. Reminds me of Hungry, Hungry Hippos™. Though NFL fans who live in the Washington, D.C. area might more readily draw associations with the offensive line of the Redskins (now the Commanders) in the 1980s to 1990s. Affectionately known as "the Hogs".

In the Blind Swine mate a pair of Rooks on the seventh rank deliver mate. Usually, flight squares are blocked by enemy pieces. Here the f8-Rook is acting as a traitor, blocking the black king's path to the center.

Firouzja, Alireza (2785) - Khandelwal, Ankush (2228) Titled Tuesday Late 2022.12.13
Alireza Firouzja became the second-youngest 2700-rated player in the world at age 16 and the youngest player ever to cross the 2800 threshold. Expectations were high for him entering the 2022 Candidates after he tied for first place in the 2021 World Blitz Championship. Magnus Carlsen even said, "If someone other than Firouzja wins the Candidates Tournament, it is unlikely that I will play the next world championship match." Here we are two cycles later. Firouzja has yet to win a Candidates tournament and Magnus indeed chose not to defend his crown.

Ankush Khandelwal was born in 1991. He is an FM playing for the United Kingdom Federation. His peak standard rating of 2342 was achieved in December 2023. He played very few FIDE-rated games from 2011 until January of 2023 but appears to have returned in improved form.

Black's rook just captured a knight with 26...Rxe6 to go a piece ahead in this blitz game and remove the defender of the rook on g7. Probably slapped that move on the board, nearly breaking their mouse in excitement, and defied White to bite the bullet. Oops. Wrong time control. Instead, 26...h6 was objectively equal.

The capture allowed White to end things with a John Wick-like kill shot to the king's temple.  

Suder, Ryszard (2129) - Golebiowska Fryga, Barbara, POL-chT blind Gp B, 2013.12.07
Ryszard Suder plays for the Polish Federation. Born the same year as the first Sputnik launch, 1957, his peak rating this century was the quite impressive 2270 in April of 2004.

Barbara Golebiowska Fryga was born in 1962. With the recent FIDE adjustment to ratings, she rose from a low of 1163 to her new high rating of 1498. Interesting to see a real-world example of the announced changes to the floor for FIDE ratings. Sure wish I could gain over 300 rating points in a single day.

Black just played 18...Rf8, threatening the bishop on f4. But neglecting the fact their king now has half a set of epaulettes (Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Epaulette Configuration for the curious). White, one presumes, sneered at this one move threat. Ignoring it as simply a mouse fart in comparison to the big bang about to appear on the board. Thereby creating a universe in which only one king surveyed the board.

What? You got a problem with this problem? Hey, no complaints! I said the problems would start out easy-peasy.

Dansker, German - Schintgen, G., Wch U12, 1993
German Dansker was born in 1981 and played under the Argentina Federation auspices. His peak rating of 2060 was achieved in 1997. The first recorded game I could find for him was in 1992 in the Argentina-ch U14. Their last games appeared in 1997...in the DB I checked. Hey, even unknowns can provide games we learn from. And with database searches it's not that hard to find those games.

G. Schintgen was born in 1982 and played in the Wch U10 in 1992 and the Wch U12 in 1993. They scored 2W-6D-10L. Presumably they have an actual first name. Clearly, they are not famous enough to go by a mere initial.

Here's another of those problems to get you warmed up and in the flow.

A repeated refrain: Same song as the first, with a slightly different verse.

Willow, Jonah (2386) - Ibrahimli, Murad Sultanali (2436) Titled Tuesday 2021.07.13
Jonah Willow was born in 2002. An IM who plays for England his peak standard rating of 2468 was achieved in April 2023. He achieved his final IM norm at the 47th Nottingham Congress, played in Dublin. One of my favorite cities. Great pub food and beer.

Murad Ibrahimli was also born in 2002. He is an IM in the Azerbaijan Federation. His peak standard rating of 2436 was achieved in October 2019. As you might gather from the fact he played in Titled Tuesday, he is a member of chess.com.

Titled Tuesday blitz contests breed aggression. Both kings seem a bit insecure here. How did White break through first?

Two reactions: Black had two choices after the initial check. And found the far less interesting choice. At least, from their ultimate point of view. I'm sure White was quite pleased with the direction the black king turned.

Chigorin, Mikhail - Steinitz, William, World-ch04 Steinitz-Chigorin +10-8=5, 1892.01.01
Chigorin was winning this crucial game that would have tied the match. But managed a monumental oversight that allowed Steinitz to slip away with the chess crown in tow. Had Chigorin played 32. Rxb7 Rxd5 33. Nf4, then his victory in this game would have been all but assured. Instead, 32. Bb4?? appeared on the board. Perhaps his sugar levels were low? (Chigorin died in 1908 from advanced diabetes.)

Steinitz started out as a tactician in the purest sense of the chess Romantic era, even earning the sobriquet of "the Austrian Morphy". But he turned to the dark side and became an acolyte of positional play. This so confounded practitioners of the "always accept a sacrifice" crowd that the resulting jeers, arguments, and counterarguments became known as the Ink Wars. The first recognized World CC, he held the title from 1886 - 1894.

Time for you to demonstrate that you too can refute a world championship contender's blunder.

Ouch! One heck of a depressing way to lose a world championship game with title implications. Steinitz' miraculous victory gave him the tenth victory needed to retain his crown. A Chigorin victory would have found them tied at nine victories each. At which time the next decisive game would have determined the outcome of this tense world championship match.

Swiderski, Rudolf - Nimzowitsch, Aron, Barmen Meister-B 1905.08.26
Rudolf Swiderski was a German chess master touted for his defensive mastery. Unfortunately, the chess world was deprived of his mastery when he committed suicide shortly after his 31st birthday.

Nimzowitsch should need no introduction as the author of My System and Chess Praxis. And the originator of numerous quotable quotes regarding lusty pawns and kings fleeing wildly in the face of double checks.

An unusual occurrence: The defensive wizard found his attacking mojo against one of the crown princes of chess.

Lessons learned or revisited: Note how useless the black queen was on the remote square a2, completely removed from any offensive or defensive role.

Tomas Petrik is a GM who plays for the Slovakian Federation. Born in 1980 he earned his IM title in 2004 and ascended to the GM title in 2008. His peak standard rating was 2544 in October 2006. For those who wonder about the winning percentages of GMs, here are his numbers. He has played 864 games in the database I checked. He won 321, drew 307 and lost 236. Do a little math and that works out to about a 55% winning score. He has apparently been inactive since October 2020.

White clearly has a great attack against the black king. But the white queen is threatened. Choose wisely among the options available to find the BEST continuation.

The attackers-to-defenders ratio is important! Including the g-pawn, White had four attackers while Black had only two defenders. And if Black's Knight had moved from e4 it would have merely opened the diagonal for the white bishop reclining so indolently on a1. Thereby adding another attacker to the mix. It's rather difficult to defend a position when the attacker has twice as many pieces lurking dangerously in the area under siege.
Kraus, Tomas (2488) - Donchenko, Alexander (2640) Ceske Budejovice GM 2022.07.08
Tomas Kraus is a Czech IM born in 1995, a title he was awarded in 2016. His peak rating of 2501 was achieved in March of this year. Perhaps we'll see his name on the GM lists in the next few years! He is currently ranked #726 in the world.

Alexander Donchenko is a German GM born in 1998 who earned his GM title in 2015. His IM title came three years before that in 2012. His peak rating was 2684 in August of 2023, and he was ranked #52 in the world at that time. In January of 2023 he won the Tata Steel Challengers!

White was losing in any case as the opposite color Bishops serve to offer attacking chances only to Black. Perhaps the pressure of the situation contributed to White's consecutive blunders that resulted in this position. 

An observation: Oddly enough, even if White's rook in the starting position is moved from d8 to a7 and the white bishop is magically transported from b4 to f8, and it is White to move, Black still delivers mate in three moves or less.

Movsesian, Sergei (2702) - Pantsulaia, Levan (2595) EU-ch 13th, 2012.03.28
Sergei Movsesian is an Armenian GM. Born in 1978 he was awarded the GM title in 1997. His peak rating of 2751 was achieved in January 2009, placing him #10 in the world. In 1999 he reached the quarterfinals of the FIDE World CC where he lost to Vladimir Kramnik.

Levan Pantsulaia is a Georgian GM. Born in 1986 he was awarded the GM title in 2005. His peak rating of 2629 was achieved in January 2009, placing him #94 in the world. He has competed in a number of chess Olympiads.

Ah, for this one we get to see that most glorious of sacrifices!

One insight: One could even argue that Black's rooks acted as distant epaulettes (Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Epaulette Configuration), blocking their king from fleeing the predatory swine on the seventh.
Degenbaev, Aziz (2203) - Wagner, Dennis (2595) Titled Tuesday Early 2023.05.23
Aziz Degenbaev was born in 2005 and plays for the Kyrgyzstan Federation. Their peak standard rating of 2249 was achieved in December 2023. 

Dennis Wagner was born in 1997 and plays for the German Federation. He earned his IM title in 2012 and was awarded his GM title in 2015. His peak rating of 2613 was achieved in March of this year. He is currently ranked #150 in the world. In 2022 he married Dinara Dordzhieva who earned her IM title in 2023.  

Black was losing in any case but just blundered by capturing a pawn on e5. Given the Titled Tuesday time control they were probably low on their clock, casting about wildly to find some way to generate counterplay in their horrible position.

A nice blitz victory for the much lower-rated player!!
Schwenk, Stefan (1733) - Kobs, Stephan (1961) Wiesbaden op 31st, 2019.08.24
Stefan Schwenk was born in 1967 and a member of the German Federation. He has not played a FIDE rated game since December 2021. In March of this year FIDE's change to the floor of the rating system raised his rating from 1687 to 1812. Cool.

Stephan Kobs was born in 1967 and is also a member of the German Federation. His peak standard rating in the last twenty years was a very respectable 2038 in November 2011. He still plays actively on occasion. In March of this year FIDE's change to the floor of the rating system raised his rating from 1809 to 1885.

Black is up an exchange and found a way to cement that advantage. Shortly thereafter White committed seppuku. Me? I would have simply resigned rather than subject myself to seeing mate appear on the board. I suspect it was simply a time scramble oversight.

Assessment: No surprise that black rooks on the second rank are equivalent to white rooks on the seventh rank.

Alekhine, Alexander - Yates, Frederick, British CF-15 London International 1922.08.12
Alexander Alekhine was the fourth world champion, a title he held for two reigns, separated by the reign of Machgielis "Max" Euwe. But I think of Alekhine as a control freak who annotated some of his games as though on move five of the game (I exaggerate for effect), he already foresaw the conclusion as a given based on his brilliant planning. This might fit into a determinist philosophy where there is no free will, let alone chance for deviating from the path as it is written, but hardly seems realistic. Then again, I suspect all annotators are occasionally subject to a "make the facts fit the conclusion" mindset. But nowadays computers are likely to call such practices out.

Frederick Yates won the British Chess Championship six times. Born in 1884 he left accounting and pursued a full-time career as a chess player and journalist. Two players he never managed to beat were Lasker and Capablanca. But he won a brilliancy prize for a victory against Alekhine in 1923 at Karlsbad. Yates died under tragic circumstances, due to a leaking gas pipe that caused him to asphyxiate. A real-life suffocation mate, so to speak.

By move 21 of this game Alekhine already had a monster knight, unassailable and parked on e5. Meanwhile, Black's only remaining minor piece was a bad bishop, a do-nothing piece of the cloth. (Eighteenth century satirist Jonathan Swift used "man of the cloth" to informally refer to a clergyman.) That knight so dominated the position that Black, perhaps unwisely, chose not to avail themselves of opportunities to trade off at least one set of rooks.

Lessons learned or revisited:
A. Before White's king could venture deep into Black's territory it was critical to ensure that no spurious and disruptive checks were left in Black's defensive arsenal.
B. Monster knights are not to be taken lightly, particularly when the opposing force only has a bad bishop. You might want to look up the stem game. It has been annotated by several analysts, so I chose not to include it here.
Tal, Mihail - Koblencs, Aleksandrs, URS Training 1965
Mikhail Tal, aka The Magician of Riga, was the eighth World Chess Champion. It should surprise nobody that the 1970 book Modern Chess Brilliancies included more of Tal's games than those of any other player. In what may surprise many, for 44 years he held the record for the longest unbeaten streak in chess history, 95 games without a loss! Ding Liren finally broke that record in 2018 with a streak of 100 games. That said, Tal had a far higher winning percentage during his unbeaten streak than Liren during his.

Aleksandrs Koblencs was born in 1916 and won the Latvian Chess Championship four times. He was also Tal's trainer from 1949 through the 1960 match that deposed Botvinnik. Koblencs wrote numerous chess books, though most translations were into German. And I don't have the patience to translate from German to English, even using online tools.

Black got too anxious to poke at the White King and played 17...Qxa2. Perhaps they thought that the loose Rook on g1 would concern White. How did Tal respond?

Summary: There were simply too many attackers for Black to fend off. Too many open lines for White to leverage to brutal effect.
Navara, David (2732) - Kraus, Tomas (2427) CZE-chT 1718, 2018.02.11
David Navara plays for the Czech Federation. Born in 1985 he achieved his GM title in 2002. His peak rating was 2751 in May 2015. He has had a who's who list of coaches such as Miloslav Vanka, IM Josef Přibyl, and GMs Luděk Pachman and Vlastimil Jansa. He is currently ranked #52 in the world and achieved his peak ranking of #13 in October 2006.

Tomas Kraus was born in 1995 and is an IM under the Czech Republic Federation. His peak standard rating of 2501 was achieved in March of this year. That will stand him in good stead if he can get three GM norms.

As we enter the arena the black king is under siege by a super-GM. Black's only trump cards at the moment are an extra pawn and a threat against White's rook on h1. It's far too early for Black to place any hope on those connected passers on the kingside.

How did White dispel any notion Black had of surviving this encounter?

Lessons learned or revisited: Sometimes the "obvious" defensive maneuver is also the losing defensive maneuver. 

The Endgame. Well, for one side...

Speaking of hogs on the 7th (and then the 6th)
Two rooks are often worth more than a queen if they are active and have targets. The diagrams below (based on the annotated game further below) clearly illustrate the potential power of controlling critical lines. Observe in the second diagram that the rooks are powerful in both attack (the weak g6 pawn) and defense (protecting the crucial f2 pawn.)

Trifunovic, Petar - Rellstab, Ludwig Sr, Olympiad-11 Final A, 1954.09.23
Petar Trifunovic was born in 1910. He is a Yugoslavian and Serbian GM who was a five-time Yugoslav champion. Originally feared as an attacking player he later focused on positional themes and defensive measures. Clearly, he was successful in remaking his game as evidenced by a 1949 match against Najdorf saw a twelve game struggle games that resulted in a score of 1W-1L-10D. Thankfully, the games were more exciting than the scoreboard might indicate.

Ludwig Rellstab Sr. was born in 1903 and a German player who was awarded the IM title in 1950. In 1951 he also received the International Arbiter (IA) title.

Game Summary: White opens lines, trades the queen for a pair of rooks, and uses the seventh and sixth ranks to defeat Black. On the other side, Black missed some chances along the way to offer greater resistance.

Preview of some key points along White's path to victory.  Plenty of notes in the game as well so feel free to skip the preview.
A. Move 22. e5 opens lines in the center. White chose to change the pawn structure to seek winning chances. 
B. Move 26...Qc7?! is a misevaluation of the position by Black. They should have traded a pair of rooks. Instead, they chose to rely on a pin that could be ignored!
C. Move 27. Rxd8! exchanges White's queen for two rooks and enduring pressure. White realized that Black's pawn structure offered sufficient targets for a well-coordinated pair of rooks to have winning chances. Meanwhile White's pawn structure could be defended as necessary. White was not winning at this point but certainly was playing with two results in mind.
D. On move 29 Black stumbles badly with 29...Qc3? Although this creates a "threat" to White's queenside pawns it does not account for the fact Black's king is unsafe. Black actually needed to play on the kingside as indicated in the notes. White was now winning.
E. After move 30 White has blind swine on the seventh rank pointing at several pawns. And there are even mating threats in the air because the black king has few squares available to him. Hmm...probably seeing-eye swine is the better phrase.
F. 37. Rexe6+ finds the Black king fully exposed, the clear-eyed swine have moved to the sixth rank, and any queen sacrifices for the pair of rooks will result in a lost king and pawn endgame.
G. Black resigns on move 42 as two mates are in the air despite a vastly reduced number of pieces. The most amusing threat is the potential David and Goliath mate with a pawn advancing to f3.

One final takeaway: Hogs can be powerful on any rank. Otherwise, we wouldn't see rook lifts!

Related blogs: You can find an entire series of blogs about trapping various pieces at: 
Knight

Bishop

Rook

King

Miscellaneous

Secrets of Trapping Pieces: A Beautiful Loss
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Said the Spider to the Fly
Secrets of Trapping Pieces: My Experience Writing a Chess Book