What is Boden's mate in chess?

Alexandra Kosteniuk's Chess News & Trivia (c) 2010

Hello Everyone,

An interesting mate idea - though not taking place too often - is Boden's Mate. We checked it out in detail in The Oxford Companion to Chess by David Hooper & Kenneth Whyld to get you some background also.

Boden's Mate is based on cornering the King for checkmate on the edge of the board by the crossfire of two bishops and is sometimes preceded by a Queen sacrifice. The name stems from the following friendly game.

However, this type of checkmate was also known earlier.

In this position, from a game Horwitz-Popert, Hamburg, 1844, Black set a trap by playing 1. ... Bb8.

2. Rxd5 c6. White cannot save his Rook because of the threatened checkmate in two, but... 3.Rh5 Qxh5 is followed by 4.Qxc6 bxc6 5.Bxa6 mate!

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