Dundee + Cool Chess + Anecdotes

I went to Dundee to see the good ship, ‘Discovery’.

Nelson lost a leg on this ship when he won the battle of Waterloo.

A few days after the battle the ship was I think sold to Captain Scott.

He was a famous engineer……(he built the Flying Scotsman)
He was a famous writer…….....(he wrote the novel ‘Ivanhoe’ )
He was a famous explorer…….(he discovered…er….....Scotland!)

This is me at the helm of the ship….

”Chocks Away!”

And this is Captain Scott’s cabin onboard the Discovery.

It was in here he played the first Scotch Gambit against Long John…

(Enough of this stuff greenpawn…get on with it…..Russ)

Of course Dundee is better known throughout the chess world as the city that
gave Scotland it’s first two Grandmasters. Paul Motwani and Collin McNab.

I have three of Paul’s book. H.O.T Chess, C.O.O.L Chess and S.T.A.R Chess.

Good books. One grumble, they are not beginners books and that’s a great pity.
It’s very unlikely anyone looking for an introduction to the game will pick one up.

Paul in his notes to the games drops in all kinds anecdotes and
delightful stories about people he had met through chess.

We know this wonderful side of the chess world exists and Paul’s
writing would have opened a new window to entice them to enter.

I’ll come back to one of Paul’s Book in a minute first one my anecdotes.

I was asked to judge the Brilliancy Prize in the 2007 Edinburgh Congress.
I get an empty plastic box, mark it ‘Brilliancy Games’ and look in the box
from time to time to play over the games submitted by the actual players.

One Player, Andrew Masters, won a brilliancy prize the week before
at Blackpool and entered the same game in the Edinburgh Congress.

Of course I'd thought it would be a good laugh to award it the
prize here as well but the organisers would have none of it.

I pick one, Hugh Brechin beating Jacob Aagaard and everyone agrees, “it’s good game”.
A few days later I’m entering all the tournament games into a database and come across
a good win by Jacob and I wonder why Jacob never entered it for the brilliancy prize?

M.Carballo - J.Aagaard, Edinburgh 2007

It transpires that Jacob did place this game in the Brilliancy Box but Dave Stewart,
the controller, took it out to show someone how good it was and forgot to put it back.

So instead of winning the Brilliancy Prize (£50) Jacob was on the other end of the Brilliancy
Prize and to make matters worse the combination which I thought was good enough to win
the prize was actually unsound! To this day Jacob sometimes still gives me grief about this.

Where was I….Oh Yes….C.O.O.L. Chess.

Another one of Paul’s jolly habits is to incorporated wee thought provoking
puzzles into his anecdotes. Here is one of his own compositions (page 80)


One Black piece has been knocked off the board (it’s not a Queen).
What is it and where do you place it so it’s Black to play and win.

Experienced solvers will right away notice the Black King is on e8.and
start by placing a Black Rook on a8 or h8 to see if castles either side works.

This kind of thing.


Black to play and checkmate in two. It can only be done with 1…0-0.

I’ll save you time by saying that in Paul’s puzzle 1…0-0 or 1…0-0-0 is not the
right answer. The solution is after the next wee piece. Give a try at solving it.

OK how many of you have had this email from RHP.

Jack Black (for it is he) received such an email and indeed had
to start his very next game Game 10427400 from this position.



Let’s see how he got on. (spoiler alert - Black misses a mate in two).

Jack Black - DiamondDave RHP 2014

We have to start a few moves in because White castled queenside and the
PGN thingy cannot handle the fact there is no Queen on d1. We join the
game just after Black has rather sportingly given up a Knight for a pawn.

So be warned shipmates develop those pieces else I’ll be taking them off you.

Now the solution to Paul’s Brainteaser. It’s a Rook and it is placed on g2.

No RHP game that I can find has the same idea, looking for one I found this:

KathyK - caissa100 RHP 2012

A writers dilemma coming up. Did White set a trap and forget about it
or did White overlook a trick in the position. I’m going with the latter

idjakboz - triraman RHP 2012

Next we have an amazing piece of miscalculation. A real beauty of a blunder.

Stop what your are doing, gather the family around the screen for this one.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Masters and Non-Masters, I now present to you:

Hazelhurst Kid - ademx, RHP 2014

I mentioned a few blogs ago the dangers of thinking. The warning is. Don’t!

Remember that mating pattern at the beginning of the last game.


RHP has a few but one is an ‘Immortal’ version

sacket - Illya Sloogivic RHP 2012

Here White tossed the c1 Bishop with a check by playing 6.d3.

The Black Queen got away OK. We join the game just before Black drops their Queen.

The thread accompanying this blog is Thread 164646