Chess Gremlins and the Scotch Game
By on 09 Oct 25 20:30
569 views | 1 edit | Last edit on 19 Oct 25 22:45
There I am minding my own business when a friend passes by and
drops a copy of the August 2024 British Chess Magazine into my lap.
“Pages 500 and 508,” they said. “You will get a Blog out of that.”
He was right. Beware the DTP Gremlins, they can strike at anytime. (read on...)
The first puzzle is...what is the question?
These are diagrams from pages 500 and 501 of the above BCM.
and on page 508 of the same issue we are asked to just find the win
So who composed it (I’ve no idea ) and what is the puzzle?
I have it as White to play and deliver checkmate in six moves.!
It is not that difficult once you recall, as part of your endgame technique the
King and Knight three move pattern. Some will know it but here it is again
In this position, the King with a diagonal square away from the Knight, it will take
the Knight at least three moves before it can place the King in check. So for two or
three moves (depending on whose move it is) you can forget about Knight checks.
With that in mind you must also know, as part of your endgame technique,
that in some rare cases Two Knights and a King can deliver a checkmate.
So back to here. (White to play)
Force the Black King into a corner 1.h8=Q+ then 2.Kf2 (the three move pattern)
Then stalemate the Black King using the White King and a Knight and with other
Knight hop about and deliver checkmate, on no account capture the Black Knight.
BCM do apologise in the following issue for the printing error.
I’ll add a couple of easy puzzles from RHP games. (White to play)
Eduardo Nixa Santos - Seanychelm RHP 2022
This one will make you smile. Carlo Troy Mavusa - Hotdawger RHP 2020 (Black to play)
Black spotted if 58...Qxb5 59.Qh5+ skewers the Queen so they played 58...e5.
Some fool (not me!) has asked A.I. to refute the London System.
A. I. is shutting down banks, hospitals...entire countries! as it devotes all it’s
resources to solving this problem. The latest development is A.I has started
fuelling nuclear missiles. Experts now believe because A.I. cannot solve it,
it is going to commit suicide. This will involve destroying the entire planet.
Checking out the rest of the BCM to see if the Gremlin had hit anywhere else
I came across part five of an article on pattern recognition in the openings
by Peter Tamburro. Good. (now I’m going to have to get parts one to four.)
The pattern to look out for in part five is in this set up.
The Knight is pinned to the Queen. Can White/Black sac their Bishop on f2/f7
and unpin the Knight with a check. It is something you should look at for both
sides on every move. If it is not on can it prepared with a move like h3 or h6.
All though the pattern is common it is surprising how many times when the
chance to soundly sacrifice a Bishop unpinning the Knight has been missed.
I’ll give an RHP example and then from the same opening, the game Peter uses.
poundlee - Caledfwlch RHP 2006
In the game Peter uses I have diverged to show, IMO a better defensive try using
discovered check not as an attacking weapon but here as a defensive tool and idea.
Martin Ahn - Tamas Ruck, Belgian Team Championship, 2007
The thread accompanying this blog is Thread 203725
