# smothered mate (self-set)

Checkmate whose closing walls are the thing's own parts, set close to protect it, so no action within its reach keeps it inside.

- Computed level: L16 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: published  ·  Domain: agency

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [checkmate](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-checkmate.other-set), [close](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-close.spatial), [wall](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-wall.range-end), [part](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-part.relation), [set](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-set.fix), [protection](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-protection.security), [action](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-action.deed), [reach](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-reach.action), [keep](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-keep.maintenance), [inside](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-inside.spatial), [agency](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-agency.capacity)

**Through:** 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
- 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. *(chess)*

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-smothered-mate.self-set*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-smothered-mate.self-set.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*