How to tell Matt knight from Tacked knight

The cap is 5-12 cm across, convex-globular with an inrolled margin when young, becoming flat-convex with a low, broad bump in the centre with age. The cap skin is matte, slightly slimy in wet weather. The colour is dark chestnut-brown, richer in the centre, paler toward the margin. The surface is finely fibrous or faintly scaly-fibrous, a "tiled" pattern, especially visible on the sunlit sides of the cap. The margin is even, inrolled when young and wavy when old.

The cap is 5–15 cm across. Young caps are hemispherical to convex with an inrolled margin, then flatten out, sometimes with a shallow dip in the centre when old, and the edge can be wavy. The surface is smooth, without obvious radial fibres, slimy and shiny when wet and tacky when dry.

The colour is reddish brown, chestnut or yellowish brown, paler and greyish pink towards the margin, which isn't grooved. The cap often has small dark yellowish brown spots that look like dried drops, but some caps have none.

The gills are notched-attached to the stem, moderately crowded and fleshy. They start whitish and with age become cream with ochre-brown spots on the edges. Spore print white.

The gills are white or cream, later pale brownish, crowded and notched or attached by a tooth at the stem. On old fruit bodies, and where they've been knocked, they develop rusty brown spots.

The spore print is white.

The stem is 5-10 cm tall and 1-2.5 cm thick, firm and cylindrical, thickening toward the base in older mushrooms. It's whitish at the top and brownish below, often with ochre-chestnut spots in the lower third. The surface is finely fibrous. No ring.

The stem is 3–8 cm tall and 1–2.5 cm thick, cylindrical, sometimes slightly wider at the base, firm, and may become hollow with age. It's white, smooth or faintly fibrous, slowly browns with handling and age, and is rusty brown at the base.

There is no ring, no ring zone and no volva. Nor is there a sharply defined white band at the top of the stem; that's more typical of Tricholoma albobrunneum.

The flesh is firm and white; where cut it doesn't change colour or slowly takes on a pale yellowish tint. The smell is faintly mealy, and the taste is mild at first, then bitterish and mealy, with the aftertaste typical of knights.

The flesh is white and firm, sometimes brownish under the cap skin and at the stem base. It doesn't change colour noticeably when cut but slowly browns after long handling. The taste is mealy with a slight bitterness.

A faint mealy smell, typical of many knights, like freshly ground flour.

The smell is mealy, like fresh flour; some authors describe it as stale, sourish flour. It doesn't help with identification, because the edible poplar and matt knights smell of meal too.