Legall’s mate arises in its most familiar form in this position, where the game begins 1. e2-e4, e7-e5; 2. Nf3, d7-d6; 3. Bc4, Bg4 (pinning White’s knight to his queen); 4. Nc3, g7-g6. Black’s attempt to pin White’s knight to his queen is not very clever, in part because White can play h2-h3 to force Black to either retreat the bishop or capture the knight and wasting time in either event. Anyway, with the moves that followed the pin Black created an additional problem: White won’t mind playing 5. Nxe5 and losing his queen, since after 5. …BxQ White has 6. Bxf7+, Ke7; 7. Nd5#. (After White’s 5. Nxe5, Black’s best bet was to forget about winning White’s queen and play d6xN, allowing QxB and losing a pawn.) The end result is shown in the next frame.