Smothered checkmate

The smothered checkmate is a useful checkmate pattern that is commonly seen in xiangqi. The idea behind is to take advantage of the opponent’s structural weaknesses, typically involving the obstrution of the escape of the general by his own pieces. We usually use the soldier, the cannon or the chariot to perform the smothered checkmate.

Let’s look at the example below:

In this position, red has a chariot while black has a horse and two advisors. We can observe that the black horse is blocking the black general from moving up. Red could deliver a smothered checkmate by moving the D3 chariot towards J3. Red wins

In the example below, red is down a piece currently. Nevertheless, the red cannon, the red chariot and the red general are in good position. Red can seize the opportunity to deliver a smothered checkmate here. With the support from the red general, red can move its F4 general to J4. This is a double check, and black cannot capture the red chariot with the general because of the protection from the red general; black could not capture the chariot with the advisor either, as that would still expose the black general to the cannon’s attack. Red wins.

As mentioned eariler, a soldier is also capable of delivering a smothered checkmate. In this example, other than capturing the I5 cannon with the soldier, red can deliver a smothered checkmate by moving the I4 soldier to J4. The I5 cannon blocks the escape route of the black general, red wins.

In this Xiangqi tutorial, we talked about the smothered checkmate. Learning this checkmate pattern not only gives you one more weapon in your arsenal, but also prevents you from being checkmated by your opponent with the sneaky smothered cannon checkmate.

Below is an exercise about the smothered checkmate. Try out the puzzle to see whether you can apply what you learn in this tutorial!

Practice makes perfect