Hi
First some pictures of me giving a recent lecture to twelve of Scotland’s
future strong players. Great fun.
“I’ll trick you, I’ll trap you, I’ll sac you….I am Cheapo Man!”
“I cannot trick if you are going to play developing moves!”
Stats Update.
So far 3173 games completed.
White wins 1658
Drawn 86
Black wins 1429
The average grade is 1478 based on the grades of
the 795 players who have finished at least one game.
Opening Stats:
1.e4 has been played 2066 times.
White wins 1057
Drawn 59
Black wins 950
1.d4 has been played 709 times.
White wins 399
Drawn 18
Black wins 292
1.c4 has been played 135 times.
White wins 76
Drawn 3
Black wins 56
1.Nf3 has been played 86 times.
White wins 55
Drawn 4
Black wins 27
Ok let’s look at this weeks tales of woe and misery.
S0AP - Roller RHP Ch 2012.
Soap puts a piece of soap in the path of Roller to slip on. Roller spots it
but then forgets it’s there.
Afraid we have had another book draw shunned.
Ian John Campbell - LusoCanuck RHP Ch 2012 White to play.
White played 1.Kd5 and after 1…Kxf5 White resigned.
1.Kf3 and head for h1 draws. Black has the wrong Bishop for h1.
The White King laughs at Black’s extra piece.
Black has a left handed screw but a right handed thread.
We have had another Championship Stalemate.
shailen7 - fogie RHP Championship 2012.
White played 72. c8=Q Stalemate.
The bright-eyed players will be ahead of me by now.
“Why not promote to a Knight with Check?”
Yes indeed, why not?
And speaking of successful opening traps….
One well worth knowing in the Fritz variation of the Two Knights.
(one victim in the 2012 championship - 18 in the main 1400 DB.)
caissa100 - Avrelii RHP Ch 2012.
Welsh Witch - fudge RHP Ch 2012
I could wag lyrical here by saying the Welsh Witch put a spell on fudge. But I won’t.
Instead....
Championship Endgame Errors No. 147
Quanto - Tequila RHP Ch 2012 Black to play.
1…Kxb8 then Rc7 and Rxb7 draws.
Instead Black took the b6 Rook and White could now win with:
2.Rc8! Threatening to promote 3.b8=Q+ and 3.Rxc5.
White missed it and played 3.Kd3 the game was drawn a few moves later.
Now how good are you at visualising Knight tours?
nelsongil - scottmd64 RHP Ch 2012 Black to play.
How about Ne4 - Nc3 - Nxa2 - Nc1 - Nxb3. Looks good.
So Black sets off 39…Ne4 and…
40.Nd7 Checkmate.
In the Chess Forum Patanjali posted a Majestic Fork. (not from an RHP game).
That is a Knight forking a King, A Queen and both Rooks. It is a very rare event.
A ‘Family Fork’ catching a King, a Queen and a single Rook is not
too uncommon. Here is a good game featuring a ‘Family Fork Mate.’.
drunkenmorphy - Chris S RHP Ch. 2012
Finally the problem that was set with at the opening of this Blog.
dsmith - funkydunky71 RHP Ch 2012
The thread accompanying this blog is Thread 145492
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Posted: Mar 04 2012 11:59
aanepade said
Just wondering - has anyone actually qualified for the second round yet? I'm two wins away from doing so in my group with the slowest mover appearing to be the lowest-rated player in my section. I'm *intending* to play more seriously in the second round...but it never seems to work out that way and I'll probably in a blitz style as usual....