The Smothered Mate or Philidor's Legacy

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 American Chess Bulletin,  Jan. 1912.

John A. Galbreath

The Smothered Mate, or Philidor's Legacy.
by John A. Galbreath, New Orleans, La.

This, at once the most elegant and interesting of chess endings, happens but seldom in actual play, and the following examples, all occurring in play, cannot fail to be of much interest and instruction to the reader. Every chess player is familiar with the ordinary forms of the ending which is given in all the elementary handbooks, and it is therefore unnecessary to repeat any of them here.

"Philidor's Legacy" is the name which, by a sort of universal consent, has been given' to the ending in honor of the famous French Master; but it is certain that it was known nearly a century before Philidor was born, in 1726.

By whom it was first played cannot even be conjectured. Mr. Steinitz, writing of the ending in his International Chess Magazine, January, 1885, page 25, has this to say in a note to a game between himself and an amateur:

"This mate is an ordinary version of the smothered mate, the first authorship of which is commonly ascribed to Philidor, after whom it is generally named 'Philidor's Legacy'.  Mr. J. G. Ascher, of Montreal, has however latterly come into possession of a very rare book on the game printed in 1656, nearly sixty years before Philidor was born, in which a specimen of this beautiful mate occurs. The book referred to is apparently a translation of an Italian author named Biachimo, and we understand that neither the original work nor its translation are mentioned in any printed index of chess books."

Mr. Steinitz, while a great chess player and a most profound analyst, was not very strong in matters pertaining to chess history.

The book referred to was presented to the writer many years after Mr. Steinitz' note was written, and after considerable research I have found that it is an English translation of the first edition of Greco, the celebrated Calabrian. George Walker in the appendix to his "Treatise on Chess", third edition published in 1841, gives a "Bibliographical Catalogue of Printed Books and Writers on Chess" up to that period, and has this: "Beale, Francis— The royall game of Chesse-playe, sometimes the recreation of the late king, with many of the nobility, illustrated with almost an hundred Gambetts, being the study of Biochimo, the famous Italian. London, 1656, 8vo, pp. 122.  Mr. Beale's work is, in fact, the translation and first edition of Greco, who is erroneously styled "Biochimo'' instead of "Gioachino".

It is in this first edition of Greco then that we have the first authentic record of the smothered mate, and it was doubtless familiar to all the great chess players who preceded him, many years before Columbus sailed on the voyage which resulted in his discovery of the western world. It must be remembered in this connection that anciently the Queen was the weakest of the pieces, and that she acquired her present power some time during the Fifteenth century. The smothered mate therefore was discovered by some chess artist who lived and played the game between that time and the advent of Greco's book. It may have been the Calabrian himself who first played it. So much for the origin of the ending. Like many other things, it is lost in the misty past, so we will continue to call it Philidor's Legacy, in honor of the amiable and gifted French Chess Paladin.

"The first position is a most beautiful ending of an Evans Gambit played some years ago between two Russian players. The late E. Schiffers highly eulogized the ending and considered that it placed the game among the 'Immortals'"

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The mate offered by Greco in the above article was:

But this mate first appeared in Lucena's 1497 book Repetición de amores y Arte de ajedrez.  The Mammoth Book of Chess by Graham Burgess and John Nunn published the following position from Lucena:

Later, this letter-to-the-editor was published:




Even later, a second letter-to-the-editor was published:

Here is the game digitized:

If there are too many words to read, just play through the games and game fragments. 

A smorgasbord of smotherings. Thank you.

Bobby Fischer's "Game of the Century" against Donald Byrne at the Third Rosenwald Tournament in New York, 1956, also contained a classical Smothered Mate in one of the main variations.

In 1804, Thomas Pruen included this in his book, "An Introduction to the History and Study of Chess."

This illustrates that the term "Philidor's Legacy" was in use shortly after his death (1795). 

ok?

Very Nice, batgirl!!

I believe I may have found another typo in this paragraph:

"The first position is a most beautiful ending of ab Evans Gambit played some years ago between two Russian players. The late E. Schiffers highly eulogized the ending and considered that it placed the game among the 'Immortals'"

ctrl+f and it should be easy to find and fix. Sorry if this seems like I'm always pointing out little errors, I can't stand typos in my own writing anyways.

Thanks.
That's actually one I already saw but was waiting to get to where I could correct it.

Excellent! Thank you!

That was one of your best!!! I don't think it was too long, I think it was perfect, I love early chess history!

The smothered mate exemplifies my musings here:

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/life-lessons-learnt-from-chess

Point #5: your own pieces can potentially be your worst enemies.

When you castle your king, make sure you're taking him to a place of sanctuary, and not a freshly dug grave.

I still have an old copy of the Golden Treasury of Chess that I got when I was about 12. It was my first introduction into the history of chess.

Public domain.

I'm relieved for you that displays of pettiness and ignorance aren't crimes. 

Position 1 and 3 are similar endings. Queen sac and mate by Knight but not smothered mate. Only the 1626 Greco game and the 1497 Lucena position are real smothered mate endings.

This is about post one.Why am i writing this?Position 2 is very beautiful (most of the positions are)elements of smothering technique leading to a suffocation mate. 

Players who are not familiair with mating patterns...................well. Several 2400 + rated players on CC don't know the difference between epaulette,Swallow's tail and dovetail mate. 

It seems a lot of People are writing about chess history. Be specific, exact,explain. Facts are just facts.

Imbalance between the topic and the article.

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John A. Galbreath thanks you.

ok