Chess Mistakes (we love them really)

Chess Review, August 1948

This problem appeared in 1898 Scotsman by Mr W. Finlayson



With the caption: White to play and mate in 4 moves.

In the next edition we learn that the White Knight on b8 is infact a Black Knight.

How did these things happen? In them days you sent in your problem
in Forsyth Notation. The above position would have looked like this


You can see how easily it would have been to misread that especially if the
person setting up the page was not a chess player and not forgetting it is a
chess problem which at first glance can often look like a random position.
If it was a position from a ‘normal’ game the mistake would be spotted..


For example here you can see right away something is wrong. (or would it. read on...)

The problem as it was originally printed is a mate in three.

So we can see how important that Knight on b8 was. It stopped the Qc6 ideas.

Here is the corrected position.


Now it is a mate in four moves.


Speaking of mistakes in chess positions I recently came across this chess stamp.


It is from a Tal game and of course that Bishop on d3 is a White Bishop
A mistake I find hard to accept, surely someone would have noticed it.

And books. How on earth did they get this date wrong (from Edward Winter’s site)


And lets not forget the ultimate over the board mistake. Resigning a won game.

I came across this position in...


It is also No. 236 in ‘Blunders and Brilliancies’ by Ian Mullen and Mo Moss.

A classic case of a player resigning in a won position

Béla Sándor - Zoltan Herendi, Budapest, 1948


1...Rxf7 Nxf7 mate. 1...h6 2.Nxg6 Mate if the Bishop moves then Qxh7 mate.
The threat is Qg8+ and Nf7 mate. Black resigned. But there is a saving move.

The answer, but try and find it firstReveal Hidden Content

By the way a few people are looking for the score of
this game. If anyone can help then please let me know.

And now you will be expecting a whole bucket load of Red Hot Pawn games
with players resigning in a won position. It is actually quite difficult to search
for games where a player has resigned in a won position. You need to be sneaky.

One method I came up with was to look for this basic position with White wins.


And quickly go though each position and see if any pop up with possible defences.
I looked for games from 2020 till the present and nearly gave up. But thankfully....

Pudge - PB1946, RHP 2021



The thread accompanying this blog is Thread 193131
.