When two rooks get out of hand near the enemy king, the end result is almost always carnage. This is exemplified by the “blind swine mate,” the pattern that emerges when a defensive setup is entirely obliterated by the attacking pieces before delivering checkmate.
Rooks on the opponent’s seventh rank are always extremely dangerous, especially when both of them have successfully invaded. They threaten all sorts of attacks and captures, and no pawns and pieces are safe from their malign influence—either because of direct attacks on the seventh rank or severely restricted mobility on the eighth.
A castled king is usually well-protected from most attacks, but when two enemy rooks have managed to reach the seventh rank, the situation can quickly turn dire. Polish chess legend Dawid Janowski coined the term “blind swine mate” to describe positions like these, and even without a checkmate threat, the “pigs on the seventh,” meaning the rooks on the enemy’s seventh rank, can be devastating.
Here’s how the direct checkmate sequence can unfold:
All of the moves are forced. After Rxg7+, the king is forced to h8, and the rook continues to track it with Rxh7+. After the king returns to g8, the other rook comes in to deliver the killing blow—since the f8 rook, similarly to Blackburne’s mate, blocks what would be an escape square.
It goes without saying this sequence of moves is pretty strong, even if the black king has a way to run. Paralyzed and defenseless, it will struggle to escape from the pigs. If chased far enough, there’s often a different, ladder-like checkmate threat that can be difficult to parry, with the monarch sandwiched between the two rooks, both ready to deliver the killing blow from one of the sides. That scenario looks something like this:
Here, even if you pull your queen to d8 to shield your king from checkmate on the left side, White can still end the game by using the other rook to achieve the same effect.
So how can you avoid a nasty fate like the blind swine mate? In the middlegame, rooks belong on the open files where they are unobstructed by pawns, precisely because they are looking to invade the enemy position on the seventh rank. A straightforward solution is to place your own rook on the same open file, turning the matter into a staring contest.
Whoever blinks first tends to lose: open file in the position below with Rc8? would allow White to get the first of the two pigs in a prime position, with disgusting threats to follow.
