by greenpawn34 on Jul 04 2011 00:32 | 12109 views | 6 edits | Last edit on Jul 20 2011 10:14
Joseph Henry Blackburne (1841-1924)
Was a great player whose games are…..
(that is Tarrasch……Russ)
Blackburne played in the same era as Tarrasch (pictured above).
Blackburne was a great player whose games are bristling
with tactics and smart moves.
His book of collected games is super for diving into at random.
Very rarely does a game disappoint.
And such a game popped up when I was looking at the some games
about 20 years ago.
Englisch v Blackburne. London 1883.
Then I scribbled some notes in pencil on the page and only recently
discovered them. .
Blackburne (Black) has just played 13…Ng4
He explains that the Knight cannot be taken because…
“If 14.fxg4 then 14...Qh5 15.g3 Bxg3 and mate follows.”
Is this correct?
I was not looking to bust the note just find the instructive win
on other defensive tries. I have written down "No win on h3."
But before we see the game it is time for…
Instructive Background No.17
London 1883 was the first tournament to use the chess clocks we use today.
The type that when you stop your clock it automatically starts your opponent’s clock.
And even back then they were looking for a solution to the Grandmaster short draw.
Go scanning around the various chess forums on the net and you will see numerous
spanner-heads coming up with all kinds solutions for this problem.
The Victorian solution was simple. It was to be a Double Round Robin.
(everyone played each other twice)
If the game was drawn then you played again. If that game is drawn then you
played again, if that game was drawn then the result, what ever it was, stood.
The number of moves did not matter.
This was the final position after Chigorin - Mason and 120 moves.
A draw. Well done lads. Now play again. They did and Chigorin won.
So a Double Round Robin with 14 players means you play 26 games.
Under the London 1883 rules this could vary.
Zukertort the winner played 32 games, Blackburne finished 3rd after playing
39 games and Englisch ended up playing 42 games! Him and Mackenzie
had to play each other six times. All games were drawn.
There should have been a total of 182 games (14 x 26 /2) instead there were 240
and that includes the fact that Arthur Skipworth skipped off after playing 17
of his allocated 26 games. I’m glad I never had to do the Tournament Book.
Before heading for the hills Skipworth walked into a neat trap set by Chigorin.
FEN
rn3k1r/p1pnqpp1/bp2p2p/3pP3/3P1NQ1/2PB4/P1P2PPP/R1B1R1K1 w - - 0 1
[FEN "rn3k1r/p1pnqpp1/bp2p2p/3pP3/3P1NQ1/2PB4/P1P2PPP/R1B1R1K1 w - - 0 1"] {If the Queen was on f3 then White here could play Ng6+ forking the King and Queen.} 1. c4 {Here Black have a pawn.} 1... Bxc4 2. Bxc4 dxc4 3. Qf3 {The Queen lands on f3 with a tempo hitting the a8 Rook.} 3... c6 4. Ng6+ {Black resigned.}
Noa - Mason produced a bad blunder.
FEN
4rrk1/ppq2ppp/2pb1n2/3p1B1b/3P4/2NQ1N1P/PPP2PP1/R3R1K1 w - - 0 1
[FEN "4rrk1/ppq2ppp/2pb1n2/3p1B1b/3P4/2NQ1N1P/PPP2PP1/R3R1K1 w - - 0 1"] 1. Nd1 {50 years later Alekhine in his notes was to warn us about making backward moves that interrupt the Rooks protecting each other. Here it cost White a piece.} 1... Bxf3 {Removing the defender of the e1 Rook.} 2. Rxe8 Rxe8 {White resigned. If he captures on f3 this happens} 3.gxf3 Re1+ 4. Kg2 Nh5 {White is mauled to bits.}
End of Informative bit now at last we get to see the game that was:
Englisch v Blackburne. London 1883
(well one of them, in this Double Round Robin they ending up
playing each other four times.)
1. d4 e6 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nc3 Bb4 {Not much good comes of this. The best place for this Bishop is at e7. JHB. This position with Bb4 is the well known and fully acceptable Nimzovitch Defence. This game was played 3 years before Nimzovitch was born.} 4. Bd2 O-O 5. Nf3 b6 6. e3 Bb7 7. Be2 d5 8. O-O Nbd7 {This loses a pawn. dxc4 should be played first. JHB. Honest note this, I thought at first it was a pawn sac.} 9. Nxd5 Nxd5 10. cxd5 Bd6 11. dxe6 fxe6 {The two Bishops trained on the King, the open file f-file. Pawns sac or pawn blunder, Black can have some fun here.} 12. Ne1 {Intending to answer the brutal 12...Qh4 with 13,f4 to blunt the d6 Bishop.} 12... Nf6 13. f3 Ng4 {If 14.fxg4 then 14...Qh4 15.g3 Bxg3 and mate follows. JHB. Yes but here my wee scribble says no mate or Black win if 15.h3. I could not find one then and now Fritz has confirmed it. Always best to get a 2nd opinion.} 14. f4 {Englisch believes Blackburne.} 14... Nf6 15. Nd3 Ne4 16. Bf3 {Being now a pawn ahead White goes in for exchanges. A doubtful policy. JHB. Today of course we are taught that trading down to an endgame when material ahead is the only way. Here however I think JB is saying White can squeeze more from this position than simply chopping wood. } 16... Qe8 17. Be1 Qg6 18. Nf2 Rad8 {Black, having to submit to this exchanging, is looking out to secure an open file for his Rook. JHB. Instructive note, JB is making sure he is going to be active in the ending.} 19. Nxe4 Bxe4 20. Bxe4 Qxe4 21. Qf3 Qxf3 22. Rxf3 c5 23. Bc3 cxd4 24. Bxd4 Bxf4 {A pawn winning trick.} 25. Rxf4 Rxf4 26. Bxb6 {This wee counter trick means White keeps his pawn.} 26... axb6 27. exf4 Rd2 {Black now has the advantage of a Rook on the 7th row, which is often worth three-quarters of a pawn. JHB. 'three-quarters of a pawn.' this is computer talk. JB was 140 years ahead of his time. } 28. b3 Kf7 29. a3 Kf6 30. b4 b5 31. Re1 Rd3 32. Re5 Rxa3 33. Rxb5 Ra2 34.h3 Rb2 35. Kh2 Rb3 {It is necessary to prevent the King coming into play. JHB. Blackburne now gives a lesson in saving such positions, the key is activity.} 36. h4 g6 37. g3 Rb2+ 38. Kh3 h5 39. Rb7 Kf5 40. Rf7+ Ke4 41. Rf6 Kf3 42.Rxe6 Rb1 {That's all folks. Kh2 - Rb1+ Kh3 - Rb1. draw. An interesting game with interesting notes. They had to play again and this time Blackburne won.}
Games from the Red Hot Pawn Black Museum.
I’m thinking of making this a regular feature as giggling at other players
mishaps seems something we are all fond of.
There is technical term for people who laugh at other peoples misfortune.
‘Chess Players’ is apt.
Just remember not to laugh too loud. I am watching. 😉
On the Chess Forum one lad was asking for checkmates by accident.
Believe me, when you play through as many RHP games as I have
you soon start to think every good move, including checkmate is an accident.
Here are a couple of examples of one side answering a check
with a checkmate.
ibh86 - jimmyenglish RHP 2009
FEN
rn2r1k1/ppp3pp/4b1q1/8/4Q3/2P5/P2N1PPP/R1B1KB1R w KQ - 0 1
[FEN "rn2r1k1/ppp3pp/4b1q1/8/4Q3/2P5/P2N1PPP/R1B1KB1R w KQ - 0 1"] 1. Qxg6 {Now Black sees that Bf7 discovered check allows the Queen to drop back to e4 and he losses a whole Rook. So Mr. Cunning plays....} 1...Bf5 2. Qxe8 {...and losses a Whole King instead.}
biloba - johnyg RHP 2008
FEN
2q1r3/r1B2Rp1/pp5p/k1P4Q/Pb6/3P3P/6P1/R5K1 b - - 0 1
[FEN "2q1r3/r1B2Rp1/pp5p/k1P4Q/Pb6/3P3P/6P1/R5K1 b - - 0 1"] {Black should just capture the Bishop on c7. Instead he nicks a pawn with check. Surely nothing wrong with that.} 1... Bxc5+ {CHECK.} 2. Qxc5 {CHECKMATE.}
Finally SLICKRICK1 -romang RHP 2008
Where we see a White King getting mated on c7 in 11 moves.
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 Nxe4 4. d3 Nxf2 {Now the cute move for White here is 5.Qe2 threatening to win the Queen with a dis-check and then take the Knight.} 5. Kxf2 Bc5+ {6.d4 is the move for White here. Instead we are now treated to a King run.} 6. Be3 Bxe3+ 7. Kxe3 Qg5+ 8. Kd4 Qf4+ 9. Kd5 c6+ 10. Kd6 Qd4+ 11. Kc7 Na6 {11...Na6 mate. That is one Knight on the rim that does not look so dim.}
Loved watching the pros making blunders, eases the pain of my own.
Any news on the latest update? These blogs are my principle source of sanity at work nowadays. Any chance of some sort of opening guide, I tend to implode by going ridiculously overly aggressive sometimes (and occasionally do the complete opposite).
I thought you could do a section on using fork lures. Giving up a piece as a lure is often discussed, but there is an even greater deception in making it appear that your opponent came up with the winning combination only to find that all is not what it seems. I was quite happy with my latest one: Game Id 8500674. On move 21 I saw potential to continure harassing the pawn on the b file but decided that there was more value in attacking the king. The beauty came when I set up my queen and bishop enticingly to fork with a pawn. The king was defended well, but traps are wonderful things ... I'm sure there are plenty of wonderful examples that would be fun to peruse. Big fan of the blog, keep up the good work. Mat
Corrected. I was reading JBH's note which of course is in descriptive.
Our h4 was his KR5.
Hi MM
I'm never too sure what theme the blog will take till I have finished it.
However examples of unsound combinations will not be too hard to cover.
I could treat you to a whole host of my OTB games. 🙂
If 14.fxg4 then 14...Qh5 15.g3 Bxg3 and mate follows..."
was it supposed to be 14...Qh4?
Any news on the latest update? These blogs are my principle source of sanity at work nowadays. Any chance of some sort of opening guide, I tend to implode by going ridiculously overly aggressive sometimes (and occasionally do the complete opposite).