Chess Computers, Taimanov and T-Shirts

It all started in Boston in 1967 The first time a computer beat
a human being (one of the fleshy ones) in a tournament game

MacHack IV - Ben Landy, Boston 1967.

We join the game just asMacHack is wrapping it up.

Since then the computer has continued chipping away at the human ego,
another landmark was reached in the 1990 World Chess Championship.

Karpov - Kasparov, World Chess Championship (Game 15) 1990

The game was drawn but the computer Mephisto pointed out a missed
Karpov win. Ray Keens in his book of the match said that this was the
‘ultimate humiliation for a human being.’ Now we know different, the
machines were sending us a warning now the machines are unbeatable.

Here is the missed win (apparently missed by all the commentators as well)

After all the drama of the 2016 World Championship it’s good
to get back to normal. But remember Carlsen’s Queen sacrifice.

M. Carlsen - S. Karjakin Rapid Tie Break (Game 4)


50.Qh6+ gxh6 51.Rf7 mate or 50....Kxh6 51. Rh8 mate.

Clever and very pleasing....and we have a mirrored doubler!

A.Vyzmanavin - V. Tukmakov, Ukraine 1986

White sacced a Rook trying to get a perpetual....


...he nearly succeeded but it’s Black’s move (see it?)

Sad to hear that during the World Championship Mark Taimanov,
Russian Chess Grandmaster and Music Maestro had passed away.

Here he Mark Taimanov (left) playing a young Spassky in 1954.

And on the cover of a CD dedicated to the worlds greatest pianists.

A very enterprising and astute player always on the look for a tactic.
“Always the optimist,” is how Bronstein describes him when noting
up one of Taimanov’s games in his book on the 1952 Zurich Candidates.

In that book Bronstein often indulged in very instructive flights of fancy
and you do get the feeling he enjoyed adding notes to Taimanov’s games.

M. Taimanov - Y. Averbach (round 6) Zurich 1953 (White to move)


Taimanov played 27.d7 spotting a nice double trick shot in the position.
Bronstein asks us to imagine it is White’s move so we can see the threat.

29.Qxf8+ Kxf8 30.Bxf6


That is a White win, Bronstein then shows us what Taimanov was thinking.

To end this very brief bio a few of Taimanov games for some instruction.

** The importance of having the first check in a Pawn Promotion Race.**

E. Gufeld - M. Taimanov Tbilisi, 1959

Alas this news was too late this year for khi2364 who took part in:

khi2364 - lililoom RHP 2016

Back to Mark Taimanov here he pounces on a very slack ‘obvious move’.

F. Nordstrom - M. Taimanov Stockholm .2001

Between 1975 and 1979 World Champion Karpov lost just 7 games with Black
(He won 44). This one of the seven losses. Taimanov sets Karpov a cunning trap
and Karpov walks into it. If World Champions can stub their toe, then so can you.

A. Karpov - M. Taimanov, Leningrad 1977

****The Knights of Agincourt ****

This piece was inspired by this t-shirt design.

There is an Agincourt Variation of the English Opening but I thought I would
see if I could find an RHP game where the Knights came out and fought first.

So I fired up the Database for the 2,100th time. (Chessbase keeps a record
of how times you open a Database) and I went looking for this RHP set up


Lasker tells us to develop our Knights before our Bishops so why not?

xolanisigabi - Dalradian RHP 2011

It’s good to be back. The thread accompanying this blog is.....


rydnine - jonesy3156 RHP 2012

The thread accompanying this blog is Thread 171052