Jules Verne, Blackburne and 1863
By on 04 Mar 26 13:44
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Jules Verne set his tale, ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’
in the year 1863. I know this because he mentions a date at the
start, the 24th May 1863, when a map in code is discovered.
Am I enjoying the book? ‘No.’ I do not have the book
Because my 74 year old eyes are struggling to keep up, my optician
says I have cats and rats in my eyes (my hearing is also on the blink.)
So I am trying out ‘talking books’ and this was one of the first I chose.
I say ‘was’ because I when got to the bit where they decide to descend
into an active volcano (that does not sound too clever) CD1 finished
and CD2 will not work. I’ve now thrown both the CD’s in the bin.
No idea what happens to the party inside the volcano. Hope they all fry.
I’ll come back to 1863 later...meanwhile....
First puzzle. Black is threatening mate in one so do not mess about.
Z. Tsydypov - C. Aravindh,lichess.2021 (White to play)
L. Maczuski - I. von Kolisch, Paris 1863
Paris, where Jules Verne wrote ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’
More about the year 1863 later, first it is White to play and win.
The 3rd puzzle and again drastic action is required. (White to play)
D. Andreikin - A. Firouzja, Chess.com 2021
I shall be kind and give you the first (obvious) move 1.Re7+
All you need do is show both wins with 1...Kd8 and 1...Kf8
1..Kd8
1...Ke8
D. Andreikin - A. Firouzja, the 1....Ke8 solution, it is mate in six moves.
The great thing about chess history is we can pinpoint exactly where and when
chess players were. For instance we know that on the 20th of August 1895
Lasker (the good one) played Pillsbury in round 12 at Hastings. (Lasker won)
Before the 1890’s and indeed some games after then, all the details were not
recorded. We know the ‘Evergreen’ was played in 1852 and that is all we know.
When Jules Verne mention a specific date in 1863 I was hoping to find a game
chess played on that exact same day. No. However I did find a Blackburne game
from 1863 and there is a slight debate about whether or not it was a blindfold game.
Have you figured out where I am going with this. Bad eyesight = blindfold chess.
A. Steinkuehler - J. Blackburne, Manchester, 1863
On the Jules Verne CD the name of the volcano they climbed into is mentioned.
It is in Iceland. It does sound a bit like how I would pronounce White’s name.
An RHP example with a final position close to the above checkmate.
lmcfarland - Livingstone9,RHP 2024
The thread accompanying this blog is Thread 204987
