Wouldn’t it be great if such a rule existed. Any pawn next to
a King can be knighted and it immediately becomes a Knight.
I did find an RHP game with the bones of the same mating pattern.
janezsm - ksenija RHP 2011
FEN
6k1/5R2/r4p2/1b3N2/1P4PK/5P2/2P5/2n5 w - - 0 45
[FEN "6k1/5R2/r4p2/1b3N2/1P4PK/5P2/2P5/2n5 w - - 0 45"] 45. Nh6+ Kh8 46. Kh5 {White is too hasty to carry out their idea. Black can play Be8 here.} 46... Re6 {Black missed it. Unusually in chess Black gets a second chance.} 47. Nf5 {And here it is. Be8 pinning the Rook to the King.} 47... Bc4 {Missed it again. There will not be a third chance.} 48. Kh6 Re3 49. Rf8+ Bg8 {Black saw this check coming that is why they played Bc4.} 50. Nh4 {And Black cannot prevent White's next move.} 50... Re6 51. Ng6 {Checkmate.}
Last week we saw players with the White bits pulling of a Morphy Mate.
This week we shall look for RHP players getting a Morphy mate in reverse.
The following game has (so far...) been played on RHP four times.
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 d6 4. d4 Bg4 5. dxe5 dxe5 6. Qxd8+ Rxd8 {In a few other games White has played 8.Bxc6 here and then 9.Nxe5 with the same result.} 7. Nxe5 Rd1 {The Morphy Mate in reverse.}
The original Morphy game it lasted just 17 moves. So I looked for some RHP
positions where Black played the mate in reverse in 18 moves, a tempo more.
Mandos - tejus RHP .2012
White instead of castling played 18.Bxg8 Rd1 mate.
jayvi - lynch1989 RHP 2014
White played 18.Qxe5. (better was 18.Qb3) 18....Rd1 mate.
cthilton - Cptncockandballs RHP 2019
White played 18.Nxe5 (how about 18.Qxe5+ and 19.Nd4) 18.....Rd1 mate.
We end this section with two games. The first is in 18 moves and the second is a
pure reversed Morphy, a 17 mover. (any other similarity to Morphy is a coincidence.)
xxxxxxxx - zenfst RHP 2011
1. e4 e5 2. Qh5 {Played 41,000+ times on RHP results approx 50/50} 2... Nc6 3. Bc4 {20+ RHP players have missed Qxf7 mate here.} 3... g6 4. Qf3 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nd4 6. Qd1 {The White Queen is back home, White's traditional first imitative has been wasted.} 6... Bb4 7. d3 d5 8. exd5 Nxd5 9. Bxd5 Bxc3+ {OOPS! Black has missed that after....} 10. bxc3 Qxd5 {...the d4 Knight is under attack.} 11. cxd4 {Black is a piece down...just an RHP flesh wound.} 11... Qxd4 12. Bd2 Bg4 13. Qc1 e4 14. Rb1 O-O-O 15. Rb4 Qf6 16. Rxe4 Rhe8 {Black is doing their best to get something going and it works.} 17. Bg5 {A mistake brought on by over confidence. 17.Ne2 was a good alternative.} 17... Rxe4+ {18.Kf1 Qa6 pinning the d-pawn. Black is now in charge.} 18. dxe4 {Will Black spot the Morphy Mate....} 18... Qxg5 {...Yes. Well played.} 19. Qxg5 Rd1
patrajasingam - jb70 RHP 2017
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 Nc6 {Playable. White's best here looks to 3.Nf3 to stop Black's next move.} 3. Nc3 e5 4. dxe5 Nxe5 5. b3 {The whole game now revolves this slack pawn which weakens the c3 square.} 5... Bb4 6. Bb2 d5 {Now a3 and break that pin on c3.} 7. cxd5 Nxd5 8. Rc1 O-O 9. e3 c6 {Play a3 and break the c3 pin.} 10. Nf3 Nxf3+ 11. Qxf3 Qa5 12. e4 {Do the maths. Three pieces attack c3 v three defenders. Decoy away one of the defenders.} 12... Bg4 13. Qd3 {It is still three attackers v three defenders on c3 but new ideas come into the equation.} 13... Nxc3 {This game could be have called 'Carnage on c3 .'} 14. Bxc3 Rad8 15. Qc2 Bxc3+ 16. Qxc3 Qxc3+ 17. Rxc3 {The Rook is the last piece standing c3. The sole survivor.} 17... Rd1 {That is a Morphy Reversed Checkmate.}
***Circumambulation***
This is where you go round and round in circles using usually a pawn as
the middle of the roundabout. It is often used to give a perpetual check or
to give it it’s correct term, a three fold repetition. There is actually no
mention of the term ‘Perpetual Check’ in the FIDE laws. ‘Three Fold
Repetition’ covers it. (although everyone uses this term, it is wrong.)
A simple example will give the idea.
FEN
7k/2p2QR1/2P1P3/8/2P1P3/1K2P3/PP1q4/8 b - - 0 1
[FEN "7k/2p2QR1/2P1P3/8/2P1P3/1K2P3/PP1q4/8 b - - 0 1"] 1... Qd3+ 2. Kb4 Qb3+ {Taking the Black Queen would be Stalemate.} 3. Kc5 Qb5+ {The c4 pawn is the hub of the wheel and the White King goes around it.} 4. Kd4 Qd5+ 5. Kc3 Qd3+ 6. Kb4 Qb3+ 7. Kc5 Qb5+ 8. Kd4 Qd5+ 9. Kc3 Qd3+ 10. Kb4 {O.K. seen enough.}
L. Prokes, Czechoslovakia 1921
White to play and win. The clue is Circumambulation.
FEN
8/3ppqp1/6p1/3Pp3/8/3pQP1k/5P2/5K2 w - - 0 1
[FEN "8/3ppqp1/6p1/3Pp3/8/3pQP1k/5P2/5K2 w - - 0 1"] 1. f4+ Kg4 2. Qg3+ Kf5 3. Qg5+ Ke4 4. Qxe5+ Kf3 5. Qe3+ Kg4 6. Qg3+ Kf5 {Just for the pure fun of it, let us go around the f-pawn again.} 7. Qg5+ Ke4 8. Qe5+ Kf3 9. Qe3+ Kg4 {I’m getting dizzy} 10. Qg3+ Kf5 {Now we play the correct 7th move before I started messing about. Sorry Mr. Prokes, } 11. f3 {11...Qf6 12.Qf4 mate.} 11... Qxd5 {This give e6 as a flight square.} 12. Qg5+ Ke6 13. Qxg6 {Checkmate.}
Or in this case Dates With Missed Mates.
cubitus - reinfeld RHP 2012 I’ll do this one in two diagrams.
White played 40.h3 missing 40.Qh3 checkmate.
Black has mate in two 58...Kf3 59. Kxh3 Rh1 checkmate.
But instead Black played 58...c3 and it is now stalemate.
