Birth of a Chess Pitfall.

A truly pathetic chess joke No 53




(Picture from Edward Winter’s Chess Notes site.)

The Clare Benedict Cup was open to national teams from Europe. In 1955...


Because the author Clare Benedict (1871–1961) the patron and benefactor of
this event came from Cleveland, Ohio, USA. I’ll have to start all over again

The Clare Benedict Cup was open to national teams from Europe. In 1955
the event was held in Switzerland and the teams taking part were Austria,
Belgium, England, Holland, Italy and of course the host nation, Switzerland.

Holland were the 1955 winners. Here is the final table.


But what interest us is the round two match between England and Switzerland.


And the two Swiss wins on boards three and four.

P. S. Milner-Barry - M. Christoffel, Clare Benedict Cup, 1955
Rather surprisingly Milner-Barry misses a chance to play Bxf7+

On the next board the same theme appears, a good chance to play Bxf7+
that was missed by White. This next game gives us the birth of a pitfalll.

E. Bhend - R. Wade, Clare Benedict Cup 1955
Another missed chance to play a Bxf7+ sacrifice.

Wade went on to lose but after the game showed Bhend the tactical idea with e5 and Ne8.

Time passed and in 1958 Wade was analysing a game in the November BCM, and this
variation appears in the notes. He writes about the time when he showed this line to Bhend.


Time passed and one month later: R. Fischer - S. Reshevsky US Ch 1958.

A coincidence or did Fischer pick up the idea from Bob Wade and headed for that
variation wondering if anybody would walk into it. The February 1959 issue of the
‘Chess Review’ when analysing the Fischer - Reshevsky game expressed surprise it
worked adding that this tactical trick had been pointed out in a recent chess magazine.

Has any body on RHP fell for this idea? Yes eight times. Here is one for you.

Ivan Ivanovitch - DieGrootGees RHP 2007


The thread accompanying this blog is Thread 197907