The King That Ate Four Men

The game, move by move

The Cunningham Defence

1. 1. e4 King’s pawn
2. 1… e5 The same claim
3. 2. f4 The King’s Gambit
4. 2… exf4 Accepted
5. 3. Nf3 The knight out
6. 3… Be7 Be7 — the Cunningham The bishop comes to e7 to check on h4 next. It is one of the oldest answers to the King’s Gambit and it never gets to play the check here.
7. 4. Bc4 The bishop at f7
8. 4… Nf6 The knight out, at e4
9. 5. Nc3 The second knight
10. 5… Nxe4 The pawn on e4, taken A pawn, and Black is a pawn up twice over. He is about to be four pieces up and lost.

The king takes four men

1. 6. Bxf7+ The bishop given on f7 The first of them. A bishop for a pawn, and the king has to take: everything else loses the knight on e4 and the game.
2. 6… Kxf7 Kxf7 — one
3. 7. Ne5+ The knight to e5, with check
4. 7… Ke6 Ke6 — forwards e8 and f8 are covered and g6 loses to the queen. The king has to walk into the middle.
5. 8. Nxe4 The knight takes e4
6. 8… d5 d5, at it
7. 9. Qg4+ Check from g4
8. 9… Kxe5 Kxe5 — two A king on e5 on the ninth move, having taken a bishop and a knight. There is nothing wrong with the position yet.
9. 10. d4+ d4, with check
10. 10… Kxd4 Kxd4 — three
11. 11. c3+ c3, with check
12. 11… Ke5 Ke5, back up
13. 12. Bxf4+ The bishop takes f4, with check
14. 12… Kxe4 Kxe4 — four A bishop, two knights and a pawn, and the king is standing on e4 in the middle of the board on move twelve. From here he never gets to move towards home again.

Driven to h6

1. 13. Qf3+ Check from f3
2. 13… Kf5 Kf5 — sideways
3. 14. Bxc7+ The bishop takes c7, with check A pawn back, and the bishop is now on the diagonal that ends at d8 — where Black’s queen is sitting.
4. 14… Kg6 Kg6
5. 15. Bxd8 The queen, taken on d8 The bishop that came to f4 and then c7 collects the queen. The material is nearly level again and the king is on g6.
6. 15… Rxd8 The rook takes back
7. 16. O-O White castles, on move sixteen The first quiet move of the game. Everything after it is a rook coming to the f-file.
8. 16… Nc6 The knight out at last
9. 17. Qg3+ Check from g3
10. 17… Kh6 Kh6 — the square he is mated on

Both rooks on the f-file

1. 18. Rf7 The rook to f7 On the seventh, and it is one of the two pieces covering g7 at the end.
2. 18… g5 g5, trying to make a square
3. 19. h4 h4, at the pawn
4. 19… Rg8 The rook to g8
5. 20. Raf1 The second rook to f1
6. 20… Be6 The bishop to e6
7. 21. hxg5+ The pawns come off with check
8. 21… Rxg5 The rook takes back on g5
9. 22. Qh4+ Check from h4
10. 22… Rh5 The rook blocks on h5 And in doing so fills h5 with one of Black’s own pieces. It is one of the squares the king would have used.
11. 23. R1f6+ The second rook given on f6 A rook offered on the one square that closes the position. The bishop is the only piece that can take it — and the bishop is what was covering f6.
12. 23… Bxf6 Taken
13. 24. Qxf6# Checkmate, on f6 The queen takes the bishop back. From f6 she covers g6, g5 and — with the rook on f7 — g7. h7 is Black’s own pawn and h5 his own rook. The king that took four pieces is mated with the material almost level.