Checkmate by castling

This is the first time in my life that I initiated checkmate by castling to my opponent. Both sides played poorly of course, but I find it hilarious to see the notation o-o# in a game.

Have any of you ever encountered checkmate/stalemate by castling, by en passant or some other unusual method before? I am rather curious. Share your thoughts in this thread.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1259009 Lasker vs george alan thomas - He could have mated with 0-0-0# but chose Kd2#

Hi, eric0022. Great game! I would very much like to add it to my collection at chessgames.com of games that ended with a checkmate by castling. http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1035963 However, they won't publish the game with your name as "eric0022" or just "Eric." Could you possibly e-mail me your real name, and I'll get it published and add it to my collection? I would really appreciate it, and you will be immortalized as one of the few players in history known to have won a game by castling with checkmate! My e-mail address is fsrhine AT gmail.com (substitute the @ symbol for AT). Hope you are able to help. Many thanks.

It's okay, thank you. You could just leave my name anonymous. The game was nothing great; it was just a random game by two random chess players with lots of positional and strategical errors.

With respect, FrederickRhine, I don't see what the big deal is with checkmating via casting, inandofitself, especially since moving the rook over instead of delivering c'mate with a king-move (e.g. Ra-d instead of O-O-O or Rh-f instead of O-O) would have the same exact result (Checkmate-in-1).  In a case of Checkmate-in-3+moves that requires the King move (e.g. O-O-O *rather than* R-d8) in consideration of opposing threats/checks or some sort of crazy position that utilizes the King somehow on the final move (which I don't see how), then that would be more spectacular.

Here are two.  I played the first one:

This one I watched OTB in a very weak chess club made up of a few part-time chess players.  0-0 mate didn't actually happen, but it was possible.

In the game, of course I did not expect castling to result in immediate mate.

Compared to regular rook moves, castling to land a checkmate is really unusual. You only have one try each game to castle, so the odds of landing a checkmate in that one try is very low.

@eric0022:  I have done so as well unintentionally in a a couple rounds of past

@JohnHS:

Now those be more like it!  (even though winning by landslide beforehand)

In this game I clearly could have won faster. I just delayed the win until I could checkmate with castling, so it should just barely count. It's much more impressive when you just want to make best moves and 0-0# is one of them. Still I somehow found the final position pretty. A lot of pieces participating in the mate and the castled rook threatening along the file between two pawns.

I know right, what a boring person! But I won`t say much more, as he performed a beautiful queen sacrifice.

White castled 61 moves after the start of the game, debunking the general rule of castling early.

lol, yeah. Your comment actually inspired me to try to find the shortest 0-0# that is possible. Currently the best I have found is 10 moves. Can anyone find a faster 0-0#?

Doesn't seem like a faster mate can be achieved, considering that the moves, including the knight promotion, are very awkward, but are also absolutely necessary to achieve a mate in 10.

It's not obvious to find the fastest mate. I improved it to blacks 7th move, so 10 clearly was not best

I can't imagine how creative you are. I am unable to even come up with these ideas myself.

Thanks, I think blacks 7th move might be the best solution. I have done a couple of "reach this position in x moves" type of problems, so I have some experience with some of these ideas. I also tend to play around and try to be very efficient with the moves if I want to prove if a position is legal and I want to reach it as quick as possible.

One similar problem I've had is that the final move should be 5.Rxe5#. I can admit to having failed that problem until whites first move was given as a hint. It is not easy

Sweet castle mate!

We're going on a king hunt! This is from Edward Lasker, and I left it as a puzzle. Can you solve it?

Cool - checkmate via castling has to be up there for moves romantic players dream about