The Sponsor and Stalemates
By on 13 Feb 26 20:25
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Someone left a copy of this murder mystery at the club.
Read a few pages, seems OK as long it does not take itself too seriously.
I can already see there is going to be a bit too much sloppy mush for my
liking. Sex and love triangles are looming. when a player turns up with
a female second who has been described as flaunting her ‘amble assets.’
We hear of the mother of a child GM who seduces her son’s future opponents.
Then we meet a female player who does not like the colour yellow. This inspires
her next opponent to turn up in a specially ordered and tailored bright yellow suit.
She resigns on move one and flees from the board into the arms of her second.
Whilst this is going on the American Chess Champion is laying dead in a bath.
No it is not Morphy...and whilst that murder is being solved....try to solve these.
B. Hagner - H. Wang, Hastings 2026
White to play and win.
What Would You Do No.116
S. Hansen - B. Bok, Bundesliga, Hamburg .2017
White has just played 64, Qh2-g2 so it is Black’s move.
What Would You Do No.117
L. Costa - J. Marn, Palmanova, Italy 2025
A Red Hot Pawn game with the same theme. sugababe - jerry, RHP 2025.
White probably knew after 64. Kg7 Black would be giving the up the
Rook for the f-pawn. Unfortunately White did not look a bit deeper.
64. Kg7 Rxf7+
65 Kxf7 is stalemate. If White does not take the Rook then Black keeps checking
on the f-file and it does not matter if the Rook is taken by the King, Bishop or Rook.
White has to be careful if they play Kg3 or Kh3 because on Rf3+ they must take the Rook.
I’ll stay on the Stalemate theme as I have a rather alarming RHP statistic.
First we look at a recent RHP example Afrikanus - mcmahon RHP 2025.
White played 50. h8=Q stalemate
Now a lesson from a 112 years ago. H. Bogdanor - B.Brown, Chester, 1914.
Black played 57...fxg1=B any other move draws. White resigned.
Just under 1,000 RHP games have resulted in a stalemate after promotion to a Queen.
The system does let you under promote to anything you want, a Knight, Bishop or Rook.
Always try to Pause Before Promoting. The games here are not blitz, take your time..
Another OTB game when taking a Bishop was the best move.
A. Reshko - O. Kaminsky, Leningrad, 1972
White played 61. a8=B and went onto win. 61.a8=Q Qf7+ Qxf7 is stalemate.
So I decided to look for an RHP game where an under promotion to a Bishop was
the only move that won. A bad decision that one. There 2,067 under promotions
to a Bishop. 607 are ‘jokes’ because on the next move the promoted piece was
captured so they took a Bishop or a Knight or a Rook because it did not really matter.
The next highest needless under promotions sre players messing about in a won game.
ivanuzz - Herr Kisch RHP 2008
Black eventually ended this game with 81...Bc4 mate.
A very common stalemating pattern on RHP is this one.
With White taking a Queen or Rook and stalemate.
That stalemate pattern is very high on RHP. Correctly under promoting to a
Knight or Bishop is rare. We see one in Sake - Stuart Robinson RHP 2008
White played 80. gxf8=B and 1-0. (80.gxf8=N+ would also have won.)
The thread accompanying this blog is Thread 204835
