A Joke, A Trap, Missed Mates in One

A Joke, A Trap, Missed Mates in One

The Planet Greenpawn

A Joke, A Trap, Missed Mates in One

Here is a joke you can play on your buddies at the chess club.
I have caught a few with, once I caught three players all at the same time.

You show them this game. It’s only 12 moves so you should
be able to remember it.



Now pull the position back to here.


And say instead of 9…g6 which we saw just got mated with a Queen sac.

What happens if Black plays 9…Ke7.


Ask what is the move here (pick up the c1 Bishop and put it on g5) 10.Bg5+ or,
put back the Bishop to c1 and play 9.Qh4+. Ask which is the best move.

I doubt very much if it will work from a diagram, I’ve never tried it but you will
surprised how many when faced with this position at a board will miss
(did you…confess), mate in one with 9.Qa3.
As I said, I’ve had three under 1600 players looking at this position at the same
time and they missed the mate in one.

That mate for some reason is called an airplane mate.

Let me know how you get on.

It's Ernie














Hi it’s Endgame Ernie with more entertaining and exciting endgames.

This week. fsmontenegro - nonkel RHP 2008

This position appeared with White to play.


White possibly looked at different winning attempts here.
Can the two White pawns get up the board far enough to beat the
lone Black Rook?



Back to the drawing board.


White comes up with a trap.



The Duck











Hey GP why am I pink?

(I cannot find the orginal gif........greenpawn.)

Hi. I’ll pick up on that opening greenpawn played with his silly joke.


White plays 4.Qg4 instead of 4.c3 in the Advanced French.

On the 1400 DB White wins are 218 v 67 Black wins. A nice White plus.
On the Mega OTB DB White wins are 373 Blacks wins 332 a slight White plus.
So it’s worth a go.

This 4.Qg4 idea apparently came from Nimzovitch.
All odd moves like this came from Nimzovitch, infact even the odd looking moves
that Nimzovitch never played are credited to Nimzovitch.
(perhaps they found this one written on a piece of paper in Nimzovitsch’s dustbin.)

But it’s certainly worth a try.

Tripcyc - ouroboros RHP 2006




ReelEmInReid - Bobla45 RHP 2003



Next a game from the 2012 Championship where upon seeing an instructive slip
by White means the same thing won’t happen to you.
Next time you meet thaughbaer thank him.

thaughbaer - yournightmare RHP Ch 2012



Here is an over the board example with another instructive point.

M. Varini (2087) - M. Fantini (1707) Trieste Open, 2002.



(OK Duck that’s enough)

We end with not with the traditional RHP game but one from a recent OTB event.
The lesson for today is that even good players miss the obvious.
White sets himself up for a mate in one and Black misses it.
D. Keddie (2025) - D. Calvert (1985) English County Championship 2012

We are not talking beginners here.
You don’t get OTB grades of 2000+ and over 1900 by sloppy play.

So how did this happen?

Google ‘missed mates in one’ and you will no doubt hit the Kramnik game
where he misses a mate in one against a computer.
Loads of players express horror at this and ask how can it happen.

The biggest ‘how could he?’ squeal came from ChessBase who gleefully
turned the whole episode into an advert for Deep Fritz.

Kramnik’s miss is fully understandable.
Any experience player will tell you it happens.
If Kramnik’s opponent had been a human then there is a chance the mate
may have been missed. There is no chance that even the weakest 2 cent
computer will miss a mate in one.

White had more than hour to make his 9th move.
Black had more than an hour to make his reply.
They simply forgot they were human chess players.

One player thought he would never leave a mate in one on and the last thing
his opponent expected to see or even play was a mate in 9 moves.

Check all Checks…..You never know, it might be mate.

D. Keddie (2025) - D. Calvert (1985) English County Championship 2012



That’s it for another week and a bit.
Budding writers note how I used the joke missed mate in one at the beginning
of this piece and close with the OTB missed mate in one.

These things are crafted and polished using all the tricks I learnt from
Jeffrey Archer when we shared the same cell.

a duck





I did not know you had been in prison greenpawn, what did your Dad say?

“Hello Son.”

(…and always end on a joke.)

The thread accompanying this blog is Thread 147579
If you have any questions or anything at all to add to this then go there.
There is single thread for each blog and you have much more you can
add in a thread. (diagrams and games etc&hellip😉

I don’t always check back on the blog to see if anyone says anything
and I’m sure others don’t either. Some of the past comments have been
quite funny and have been missed.
So I’m going to take the comments off. You still get a free say in the thread.

(I bet some wit asks if they can have comments back on!)

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

Show Comments (0)
Comments (0)

    Last Post
    23 Mar '24
    Posts
    467
    Blog since
    06 Jul '10

Cookies help us deliver our Services. By using our Services or clicking I agree, you agree to our use of cookies. Learn More.I Agree