{
  "id": "smothered-mate.self-set",
  "term": "smothered mate",
  "sense": "self-set",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "published",
  "level": 16,
  "domain": "agency",
  "style": "window",
  "definition": "Checkmate whose closing walls are the thing's own parts, set close to protect it, so no action within its reach keeps it inside.",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "checkmate.other-set",
      "close.spatial",
      "wall.range-end",
      "part.relation",
      "set.fix",
      "protection.security",
      "action.deed",
      "reach.action",
      "keep.maintenance",
      "inside.spatial",
      "agency.capacity"
    ],
    "interaction": "Each defender was placed to protect the king and does; together they fill each square it could go to, so one attacker whose check cannot be blocked is enough. Protection accumulated until it was the wall.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "protection that becomes the wall",
      "one attacker is enough because the defender built the other walls",
      "safety and confinement held in the same parts"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "In the classic smothered mate a knight checks a king boxed in by its own rook and pawns; a knight's check cannot be blocked, and each flight square is occupied.",
      "domain": "chess"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "checkmate.other-set",
      "type": "is-a",
      "note": "a checkmate in which the walls are the king's own pieces, not the opponent's"
    },
    {
      "id": "constraint.limiting",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "a constraint narrows a window to keep drift inside; here protective walls narrow it until no action fits"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "smothered mate",
    "smothered mates"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "claude-opus-5-5:hand-curated",
    "date": "2026-09-28",
    "confidence": 0.85,
    "sources": [
      "schema/power-agency-phase.md"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-smothered-mate.self-set"
}