Surprise Checkmate: Difference between revisions

Related to [[Chess Motifs]].

 

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* ''Knights of the South Bronx'' has an especially [[Egregious]] example: the final game ends with three consecutive checks from one of the boys, followed by a checkmate from his opponent.

* In ''[[The Avengers 1998 (Film)|The Avengers 1998]]'', Steed moves his knight and puts Mrs. Peel's king in check, and she takes the knight with her queen, putting his king in checkmate.

* In ''[[From Russia With Love (Film)|From Russia With Love]]'', a SPECTRE agent playing a high-level game of chess receives a secret message that he's needed elsewhere. His next move is so brilliant that his opponent immediately resigns. The opponent is clearly surprised, even though as an expert player he should have been able to see the move coming.

** See the discussion [http://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/chess2/diary_13.htm here] at 250, implying the opponent may have thrown the game. It also discusses how this game differed from its real-life model (despite [[Did Not Do The Reseach|the research being done]], implying it was intentional).

* The ''[[Frasier]]'' episode ''Chess Pains'' culminates in this trope.

* Averted by Reed in an episode of ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' when he announces "mate in 12".

* In ''You Wish'', Gillian wishes for telepathy so she can deal with her kids better. She changes her mind, but she and Genie finish up the episode with a telepath vs. telepath chess game. She takes the wind out of his sails with the check-followed-by-checkmate variant.

* At the end of "Man Hunt" in ''[[Numb3rs]]'', Don and Alan team up against [[Good With Numbers|Charlie]], who thinks nothing of grading his students' papers while they play. When Don points out that Charlie misspelled "anomaly," Charlie gets indignant, and he sticks to his guns over the next few moves, even when Alan reminds him that he's not infallible. Eventually, Don gets the dictionary, and before Charlie can collect his wits, Alan delivers checkmate.

* Most of the time a "Surprise Checkmate" only happens when a player is in time trouble. (Time trouble does not happen in fiction often). However, there are examples of it happening when a player is not in time trouble:

** In Japanese chess Habu, an enteral Meiji, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAWYQlElI4Q walked his king into a checkmate] in a winning position.

** Two more cases of grandmasters walking into mate-in-one can be found [http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com/2007/01/worst-move-on-board.html here].

* Pretty much any time a 4-move checkmate or one of its variants happens is a surprise to the losing player.

* Obviously occurs far more often when one player is a new to the game.

** The Fool's Mate<ref> 1. g4 e5 2. f4 Qh4++ </ref> is a perfect example, though it only rarely happens because it requires a novice player to make a critical opening move mistake.<ref> While opening with 1. g3 ... 2. Bg2 is a hallmark of hypermodern play and a valid way to build a solid pawn structure while maintaining central square protection, opening with 1. g4 (or "The Grob") is widely considered the worst possible opening move as it loosens the entire kingside structure and prevents the critical h4 square any sort of defensive coverage</ref> Players caught off-guard by this rather surprising mate never fall for this one again, nor will any spectators who see it happen to the novice player.

* Although it's rare, there have been games at the master level where a check was answered by a checkmate. [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1009425 Chessgames.com] lists six such games between 1850 and 2002.

 

[[Category:Game Tropes]]

[[Category:Surprise Checkmate]]