A blind swine mate is a checkmate by two rooks that trap the king inside a box of two by two squares. The textbook picture is two rooks doubled on the seventh rank, mating a king in the corner. Every puzzle on this page ends in a blind swine mate, comes from a real game and is close to your puzzle rating.
Picture a black king on g8 with its own rook on f8, and two white rooks on g7 and h7. The rook on g7 gives check. It is defended by the rook on h7, so the king cannot take it, and the rook on h7 is defended by the rook on g7, so the king cannot take that one either. The rook on g7 also covers f7 along the rank, the rook on h7 covers h8, and f8 is filled by Black's own rook. The king is stuck in the box of g7, h7, g8 and h8, and it is mate.
Two rooks side by side protect each other. That is the whole secret: a lone rook next to the king would just be captured, but a pair of rooks can walk right up to it.
White has a king on g1, rooks on b7 and c7, and pawns on f2, g2 and h2. Black has a king on g8, a rook on f8 and pawns on g7 and h7. White mates in three: 1.Rxg7+ Kh8 2.Rxh7+ Kg8 3.Rbg7#.
Each black reply is the only legal move. The first capture takes the g-pawn with check, and the rook on b7 defends it along the seventh rank. The second capture takes the h-pawn with check, again defended from b7. Then the rook on b7 slides to g7 and completes the box. The rooks needed no other piece: they removed the king's pawn cover and mated on their own.
In real games the box is often not in the corner. A common version has the king one step up from its back rank, say on f7, with the two rooks one above the other on the file next to it, on e7 and e8. The rook beside the king gives check and is protected by the one behind it, and between them they cover every square on those two ranks. The squares in front of the king that they cannot reach have to be blocked by the king's own pieces or covered by another attacker.
The blind swine mate belongs mostly to endgames, rook endings in particular. Two rooks that reach the seventh and eighth ranks attack the pawns that have not moved and cut the king off, and from there a mate is often only a few moves away.
When you have two rooks and one of them reaches the rank or file next to the enemy king, look for a way to bring the second one up beside or behind it. Then count the king's squares outside the two by two box. If its own pieces fill them, or another of your pieces covers them, the box is closed.
To defend, never let two enemy rooks settle together next to your king. Challenge one of them with your own rook, give your king a square outside the box, or keep a piece that can take one of the rooks.
The attacker's mistake is checking with one rook that the other does not protect, which lets the king capture it or escape. Another is grabbing pawns without check and giving the defender time to bring a rook back. The defender's mistake is thinking a king in the corner is safe behind its pawns when two rooks are on the seventh.
Blind swine puzzles are usually short and forcing, so they reward seeing the final box before the first move. If you are stuck, the hint shows the piece first, then the move. After you solve, the full line appears beside the board. For other mates built on the first and second ranks, try back rank mates, and see the checkmate patterns page for the full set.
For mixed tactics at your level, use Puzzle Training. For speed, try Puzzle Storm, and to repeat a fixed set until it is automatic, the Woodpecker Method. Elo Maxing rates you on every tactical motif and serves the weakest next, and Pattern Drill builds practice from the patterns your own games show you miss. For training tactics by motif, read the Elo Maxing guide.
A checkmate by two rooks that protect each other and trap the king in a box of two by two squares, classically with the rooks doubled on the seventh rank.
Rooks doubled on the seventh rank are often nicknamed pigs, for the way they eat up the pawns there. The name of the mate comes from the same picture.
Often not. The two rooks protect each other, and the king's own pieces frequently block the squares the rooks cannot reach.
Challenge one of them with your own rook, give your king a square outside the box, or bring a piece back to attack them before they double.