Entries are now being taken for The RHP 2012 Championship.
I’m in and at the time of writing so are 788 others.
When it’s up and running I’ll dedicate a part of each Blog to games in the
2012 championship. The first loss, the first mate etc.etc.
So if you can enter, then enter, sounds like it could be a lot of fun.
The Birth of a Chess Book
In the early 80’s a dear friend of mine, Ian ‘Spike’ Mullen sent in a series of
positions to CHESS all showing missed winning moves. Here is just the top
section of one of the first articles.
During that period the Canadian player and writer Moe Moss saw a column,
he contacted Ian, they got together and wrote BLUNDERS & BRILLIANCIES.
An excellent book which was widely acclaimed and published in 1990.
However I recently noticed a humorous blunder that would have greatly
appealed to Ian’s wry sense of humour.
The first Diagram (in the very column that may have brought the two authors together)
is the wrong position and the players have been switched.
It is not Rubinstein v Schlecter it was infact Schlechter - Rubinstein
This is the correct position.
Schlechter - Rubinstein. Berlin 1918.
Rubinstein should have played 30…Be3 pinning the White Queen which is stopping
the mate on c2. It would no doubt have brought about Schlechter’s immediate resignation.
Instead Rubinstein played 30….Be4 and the game was drawn on move 57.
How do these things happen?
First the Rubinstein miss is explained by time trouble in the tournament book by Lasker.
Good players have been known to miss these one-movers against fellow good players.
They simply don’t expect their opponent to leave one-movers on.
The error in the position and name switch no doubt happened a very long time ago, years
before databases, when the notation was being changed from German algebraic to English
descriptive and then some enterprising Sherlock Holmes deciding that surely Rubinstein
would not miss such an easy move, it must have been Schlechter.
(no doubt adding that Schlechter was to die a few months later of malnutrition.)
Ian, who was quite meticulous, most likely got the position from a previous publication
showing blunders in GM play. I doubt he had access to the German book of the tournament
and as I said before, chess databases were a long way off in 1983.
Someone has tempered with the original position for effect.
In the erroneous position which did not appear in the game.
If it were White to play then White mates in 3 starting with 1.Qd7+
(I helped Ian in testing and selecting a few of the positions for the book - so blame me!)
So where is this leading…? any excuse to show a game.
greenpawn34 - VanemGrenberg RHP 2011
The Noah’s Ark Trap.
So called because it is that old Noah was catching his sons with it on the Ark.
Prefect - Mephisto2 RHP 2004
We have just seen some missed wins at the GM level.
Let us go right to other end of the rainbow.
gran02 (current grade 754) -v- nemo39 (current grade = 886) RHP 2011
I was skipping through this recent game on RHP Game 8825512
and came across two excellent chances missed for either side.
(don't tell me good players cannot pick up things from these games. I say you can.)
First for White.
White is already a whole Rook up and just needs to switch into wrap up mode
to put this game away.
Any ideas?
Take away that Knight on f6.
Hopefully now you can see 1.Bg5 mate.
It’s how some good players spot and calculate these combinations, They remove
in their mind key pieces and work out an outcome. If they like what they see then
then try to find a way to deflect the key piece away from it’s square.
I say ‘some’ good players because other good players may see and calculate the
combination is a different manner. I think I would be doing more harm than good by
telling student players ‘how to think ‘ Each person is unique.
What would attract a good player to this position….
…is the fact the King is so short of squares. A check on the h5-d8 diagonal is mate.
Others may see that the Black King and Queen being in a Knight fork able pattern and consider 1.Bg5.
In the actual game White appeared to see neither idea and played 1.Bc4. thinking
of only getting his h8 Knight back into the game and anticipating 1…g6 and 2…Bg7.
In which case 1.Bb3 trapping the b2 Rook was another idea.
This next position from the same game is more difficult but it is not it beyond an
average player. I spotted it and I’m average.
It did not leap at me like the above position but again I was lured by the state of
the White King and the fact it there were enemy pieces hovering around it.
It shows the value of knowing patterns to help you spot shots on the board and
how one idea you were looking at is the springboard for another idea.
Black to play.
Any ideas?
How about 1..Nxf3+ 2.Kh1 Nf2 mate. Three pieces always mate.
We just need to deflect the Queen from protecting f3.
And it cannot be done!
However whilst looking for deflecting Queen ideas….This mating pattern popped up
I think I have given enough clues. Let us look at that position again.
Give it a go before you look at the following sequence.
Find me a plausible continuation.
You build up patterns by playing the game and by looking at tactical examples given
in books (and in blogs…….good blogs!) 😉.
Thread 144330 This was stated;
"It's often dangerous for Black to throw his Queen out on White's
K-side early in an e4-e5 game."
Good advice but one very small moot point.
Perhaps it should ; "It can be dangerous...etc etc..."
Or even; “It is recommended you get your Queen out and over to the Kingside ASAP.”
Out of curiosity I checked my 1400 RHP DB to look for games no further
than 10 moves where a Black Queen went to h4.
Found 1048. White wins = 242 Drawn = 6 Black Wins = 800.
That tips the scales heavily in Black’s favour.
Most of them are White playing a poor King's Gambit. (1.e4 e5 2.f4)
One school of thought is that at that level players should avoid opening up
their King and inviting an attack until they have built up a sense of danger.
On the other hand what better way to build up a sense danger than to keep
getting walloped in 10 moves as White by an early Black Queen sortie.
Conversely. This position with games ending in 10 or under moves.
Yields 1594 games. White wins = 1256 Drawn = 10 Black wins = 328.
That is the scales tipped back to White in alarming fashion.
So this indicates at the lower levels the first player to get in Qh4 or Qh5
usually gets the advantage.
Early Queens out to h4 or h5 = P.2642 W = 2056 D =16(!) L = 570
Here is a game where White sees what Black is up to, he prevents it,
only set himself up for another trick.
Catheleijne - tth1nemesis RHP 2010
Here we see a Black Queen skipping out to h4 and getting punished.
rocao666 - bdh191 RHP 2009
And that wee trap I mentioned in the notes.
a winner - oskibara RHP 2008
Now what? Oh yes this.
Entries are now being taken for The RHP 2012 Champ....
(You have done that bit already...........Russ)
We end with this wee cracker.
davaniel - Natural Science RHP 2011
This position. White to play.
Has appeared on here and in some high level OTB games.
Most pulled the g5 Knight back to h3. One or two sacced the g5 Knight on e6.
Davaniel threw the beast on f7.
What follows is a typical under 2000 game. And as most of the readers are under 1800
then this is the type of game you should be looking at. It’s easy to understand,
unlike a GM game were all the good stuff we need to know is never played and rarely mentioned.
Hopefully I have caught the critical moments. If not just enjoy the game..
The thread accompanying this Blog is Thread 144527
Best rgds from Norway
Vanja Mullen Christensen, Ian`s daughter🙂
Vanja C.
You can learn from any game. I like showing and enjoy using
examples of played by the lads on here because they are unique.
You won't see them anywhere else.
And what better games to use than those played by your peers.
Just found a copy on eBay and its on the way - thanks for the suggestion.
*though I tend to favor blunders!
I love looking at class player games myself. It is funny, because the very first e-mail I received in 2012 was a person who unsubscribed from the chess tactics email newsletter that I write, because,
"The games were from lower rated players. I want to see what masters do."
I wrote a whole blog post about why it is fun to look at class player games here: http://tacticstime.com/?p=2353 called "Master debating: Should you study class player games?" 🙂
Keep up the outstanding work! And good luck in the RHP 2012!
Yes Black in the 2nd diagram plays 1...Nf3+ forking K & Q.
So White has to play 2.Rxf3 the h-pawn is now unpinned 2...hxg5.
It's bad enough losing a game. But resigning a game when you had a
winning move in the position.......I hope the lad had a sense of humour.