Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Boden’s Mate

Boden’s mate is a chess pattern consisting of the simultaneous checkmating action of two bishops on crisscrossing diagonals.

The pattern takes its name after the English chess master Samuel Boden who successfully used this pattern in his games.

Today’s game, the famous ‘Peruvian immortal’, finishes with this pattern.

This game is a small piece of chess art where White beautifully sacrifices both rooks and the queen.

Firstly, the sacrifice of both rooks completely deflects the opponent’s queen from the main action. Finally, a queen sacrifice leads to a Boden’s mate.

Esteban Canal, a Peruvian chess master, played that game against an amateur in a simul exhibition in Budapest (1934)

Describing that game, the American writer Fred Reinfeld explains: “A man might play a million games of chess and never duplicate Canal’s feat”

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