I wonder if Charles Kinbote's final commentary to lines 597-608 ("Let me close this important note with a rather anti-Darwinian aphorism: The one who kills is always his victim’s inferior") is, in any way, applicable to suimate in chess or to Petrov's problem*.

In "The Luzhin Defense." Aleksandr Ivanovitch Luzhin's attempts to evade what he interpreted as his inevitable fate in the hands of Valentinov is indicated to Mrs. Luzhin by his exclamation: "'The only way out,' he said. 'I have to drop out of the game'." His suicide apparently doesnt't refer to a selfmate in chess having initially been presented by Luzhin's opponent Turati - or does it?

*In the blog.chess.com/.../petrov-and-the-mysterious-morphy-self-mate - I came across a reference to the Russian master Petrov and a mystery related to Paul Morphy, editor “The Chess Monthly” together with Daniel Fiske, where, "on page 207 of the July, 1859 edition there's a self-mate problem submitted by Petrov... I believe that the phrase “which in losing gains herewith” is simply a reference to the problem where the White pieces represent Morphy, although they force themselves to lose the game...I have described this as a mystery because Morphy and Fiske promised the reader that the solution would appear in the September issue of their publication. The readers of 1859 were probably as disturbed as myself when the September issue was published and no such solution appeared! If any reader has the solution, please post it as a comment."

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.

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