So there you have it.
Paul Morphy is alive and well living inside the mind of a small girl
from Chicago telling her how the Knight moves.
Perhaps all of us have the ghost of a deceased chess
player who has ‘moved in’ and is giving us advice.
My subscription to the Weekly World News is in the post.
I want to see who I’ve got rattling around inside of me.
(He is pretty naff at endings who ever he is.)
Reminds me of the quote, I (we) cannot recall who said it.
If you pray to God then you are called a devout Christian.
If you say God talks to you then they lock you up!
Speaking of Quotes and Chess, there is currently a thread of Chess Quotes
on the forum. Posted about the same time was a nice game by Ragwort.
This position was reached after the moves posted by Ragwort.
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. d4 exd4 5. Nxd4 Bb4 6. Nxc6 bxc6 7. Qd4
There follows a position reached from the above opening with Tarrasch
playing 7.Qd4. It has nothing to do with the Ragwort thread, the coincidence
is a quote from this excellent book.
The above opening appears in Tarrasch’s game v Schallop, Frankfurt 1887.and
in annotating the game Tarrasch comes up with a brilliant note. A Quote.
.
In this position it is Tarrasch (White) to play….
….and after explaining all the different methods White has at his disposal
to win this game he writes:
“One of the most difficult tasks when playing chess is to find the strongest
move from a number seemingly equal moves.”
Spoilt for choice and with his sense of danger asleep he blundered.
A wonderful pieces of advice. If getting beat then keep making carefully selected
moves that make your position worse.
Soon your opponent will be faced with a plethora of good moves, get confused
and blunder.
[FEN "8/pbp3Qp/2kp4/8/2B4q/4KP2/P1P1R1PP/1r6 w - - 0 1"] 1. Qd4 {Protecting the Bishop and offering Queens off. It loses a piece. Can you see it?} 1... Qxd4+ 2. Kxd4 Rb4 {Black will win the pinned Bishop with Ba6. But, I hear you cry. It is White's move he can now move the King and unpin. No! because Black also threatens Rxc4 and Ba6+ skewering the Rook. It is this what Tarrasch missed.} 3. Re7 {White fights on trying to make something with his connect kingside pawns.} 3... Ba6 4. Rxh7 Rxc4+ 5. Ke3 Rxc2 6. g4 Rxa2 7. g5 Rg2 8. h4 Bc4 {Schallop's plan is to give up the Bishop for a pawn then Queen his a-pawn.} 9. f4 a5 10. f5 a4 11. f6 a3 12. f7 Bxf7 13. Rxf7 Rg4 14. Rf8 Rxh4 15. Kf3 Ra4 16. g6 {Now the g-pawn looks just as dangerous as the a-pawn but as Tarrasch points out in these double promotions positions whoever gets in the first check usually wins.} 16... a2 17. g7 a1=Q 18. g8=Q Qf1+ 19. Kg3 {9.Ke3 gets mated after 9...Ra3+ Black wraps this up with another skewer.} 19... Rf4 {0-1 because if ....} 20. Rxf4 Qg1+
By now the RHP blog format is well known.
A wee joke, an instructive bit, Examples from RHP of the instructive bit.
Here they are. The theme is Double Promotions.
Remember it is usually the player who gets in the first check who wins.
Not always but if taking part in this pawn race try to be one who checks first.
A standard set up. White to play.
prabhu7777777 - kuntakente RHP 2009
Black is threatening Kd2 and forcing home the c-pawn.
However simply by counting the moves and noting where the Black King
sits White ignored the threat. He gets in the first all important check.
[FEN "1rb3k1/p7/2p1p3/n5NP/6P1/1p6/5R2/6K1 w - - 0 1"] 1. h6 b2 2. h7+ Kg7 3. Rf7+ Kg6 4. h8=Q {Don't waste your time looking at trick involving promotion to a Knight with check. There is none. White now threatens mate in one but Black gets in the first check.} 4... b1=Q+ {White now played 5.Kg7 and after 5..Qb2+ the Queens came off and 0-1. But what happens if White interposes with the Rook.} 5. Rf1 Qxf1+ 6. Kxf1 Ba6+ {Followed by Rxh8 and 0-1.}
Now we see Black Queening with a check and turning down a possible win.
Instead Black placed his Rook on an unprotected square on an open with a Queen
running about. Always a bad idea.
[FEN "4Q3/2PR4/2r5/8/1k1K4/8/p7/8 b - - 0 1"] 1... a1=Q+ 2. Kd5 Rc5+ 3. Kd6 Qd4+ 4. Ke7 {Now the obvious move 4...Re5+ is best. Black appears worried that he cannot win the Queen and the game due to the advanced c-pawn. He is perhaps seeing a position where the pawn promotes. He carries on checking and fishing.} 4... Qh4+ 5. Kf8 Qh6+ 6. Rg7 {Now 6...Qh8+ and keep checking forcing White to keep finding the best move was the way to go. Instead Black only saw the c-pawn and the pin.} 6... Rxc7 7. Qb8+ {The c7 Rook is gone and Black resigned after a few spite checks.}
[FEN "1Q6/R5pk/5n1p/8/2r5/P7/3p1PP1/R5K1 b - - 0 1"] 1...Rc1+ 2. Rxc1 dxc1=Q+ 3. Kh2 Qc2 4. Qc7 {Threatening mate on g7 and offering the Queens off.} 4..Qg6 5. Qg3 {Threatening mate on g7 and again offering the Queens off. This time White has over looked a trick in the position}5..Ng4+ {And there it is, if now 6.Kh1 or Kg1 then 6….Qb1 mate.} 6. Kh3 Qh5+ 7. Qh4 Nxf2+ 8. Kg3 Nh1+ 9.Kh3 Nf2+ 10. Kg3 Nh1 {Draw.}
Before we see the main feature, first a cartoon supplied by psrteles - Kblanca RHP 2007.
In this battle of the d-pawns we see both d-pawns promote in 8 moves.
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 b5 {The Polugaevsky variation. Black invites White to carry out his threat to win a piece.} 8. e5 dxe5 9. fxe5 Qc7 10. exf6 Qe5+ {The Point. Black wins back his piece. } 11. Be2 Qxg5 12. Qd3 Ra7 13. Ne4 Qe5 14. Nf3 Qd5 15. Qe3 Rd7 16. Rd1 Qc6 17. Nd4 Qb6 18. 0-0 e5 {I am not going to try and analyse any of this. Far too much like hard work.} 19. Qg3 exd4 20. fxg7 d3+ 21. Kh1 dxe2 22. gxh8=Q exd1=Q 23. Qge5+ {The first check!} 23... Qe6 24. Qxe6+ {Black resigned. It's mate in all variations, the prettiest being....} 24... Re7 25. Qxc8+ Qd8 26. Nf6
Hooray! my copy of the Weekly World News has just arrived.
Apparently I have teamed up with Rufus dull-witted Drufus.
A totally mad hermit from the 13th century.
That’s just typical of my luck. She gets Paul Morphy I a mad recluse.
I'll have a run over a few games. I might spot something.
Hopefully a juicy error. 😉 that I can build on and have
some harmless and instructive fun.
I've looked at the game the grading difference is 700 points
and it looks interesting. (I cannot say more as it's in progress).
Hello Greenpawn, keep reading your blog expecting to find myself as a lesson for others but so far so good. Anyways tried out the old black sac against the Evans from a few blogs back, and while not finished yet, I think I have wone as black against a far superior opponent. Analyse at length if you desire.
Game ID 8500154
Cheers
Might as well let the rest of world know. Good game.
(Messed up the link in the previous comment.)
I'll have a run over a few games. I might spot something.
Hopefully a juicy error. 😉 that I can build on and have
some harmless and instructive fun.
I've looked at the game the grading difference is 700 points
and it looks interesting. (I cannot say more as it's in progress).
Game ID 8500154
Cheers