The thumbnail shows the common form of smothered mate with the king in the corner. The Wikipedia page has other forms - like in openings. A grandmaster getting a smothered mate (even in a speed chess game) is uncommon because what the attacker is up to tends to be obvious. The thumbnail form done by not one but two knights must be exceeding rare. I'd never seen it before.
Magnus had a big advantage and after 25...Nxd3 white mentally collapsed. He spent ~30 seconds thinking which is a vast expanse of time in speed chess, he made a bad move, he made another bad move, and then Magnus had mate in 3.
https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/116721637783?tab=analysis&move=49
In chess, a smothered mate is a checkmate delivered by a knight in which the mated king is unable to move because it is completely surrounded (or smothered) by its own pieces, which a knight can jump over.
The mate is usually seen in a corner of the board, since only three pieces are needed to surround the king there, less than anywhere else.
https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/98668537943?tab=analysis&move=59
That's my favorite smothered mate of all time. It's by Hikaru Nakamura. I watched the game live and before he played it - I had no idea he had checkmate. What a truly fantastic sequence. But for him it was something from just another day at the office. And he was on to the next game.
Out of curiosity I tried to see what threatens the king in the different spots, so I noticed the kill by bishop, by knight on d3, by knight on g4, but it looks like he'd be in the clear on f3, g3 and e4; is the image before the final move(s)?
Ah, okay, thanks, I see also where I was confused; I mistook the queen for the king (the piece looks like a crown, lol; I also didn't realize the link led to a move-by-move look)
Someone put a chess board in the breakroom at work and ever since I have been trying to get better at chess so I can finally beat someone.
That guy is the best chess player in history. The slaughter of his opponent was just a matter of time.
