An early Christmas present I treated myself to was this.
I picked it up when I down in London for the World Championship...
Yes there is something wrong. The picture of the pieces have been mirrored
(that my friend is the technically term for turning the picture back to front.)
Possibly done on purpose for some fancy artistic reason which I have missed.
Amazing Chess Coincidence No.21.
(Someone is going around removing famous chess games from the book indexes.)
I also have another meaningless minor nit-pick. Do you remember this
from the last Christmas Quiz Blog Post 405 who it?
It is indeed Frank Marshall (Black Queen on g3 the ‘Gold Coins Game.’ )
Levitsky - Marshall, Breslau 1812
Black has just played 23...Qc3-g3, White resigned and then it rained gold coins.
This game is missing from the Index. (told you it was meaningless nit-pick)
I think it is odd that Marshall’s most famous game is missing from the index.
Alekhine’s favourite game, his famous win v Bogoljubow at Hastings 1922
is missing from the index in the Bell edition. of his ‘Best Games 1908-1923’
Possibly the most famous game ever played , was left out of this book....
...on purpose. The reason being...
Fair enough, It is John Nunn’s book, he gets to choose what goes in it.
What I find strange is that it is a beginners book so , and I’m guessing here,
it is aimed at beginners and there is a very good chance (another guess by me)
that the reader will never have heard of Morphy and his opera loving chums.
Infact the very first sentence of the introduction reads:
Yet the reader, that will be the beginner, is being told that someone they have never
heard of once played a game of chess against two people, (Eh? Chess is a three
player game) and that nearly everyone else uses that game but it is not very good.
I’m thinking John Nunn may have used the introduction to quell any future
reviewer who might have noticed no Morphy at the Opera game which does
appear to be standard fare in many books. It is his book, so he just left it out.
Or maybe not and he was just having a good old fashioned rant in print.
John uses Mohamad Al Modiahki - Htun Zaw Tin, Myanmar, Burma, 1999.
as the all important first game to teach the student how to read chess notation.
Any reasonable game for the student will suffice providing, as John does here,
there are lots of diagrams to show the student they have the correct positions.
Another coincidence is the game in question was repeated here on Red Hot Pawn.
Geno100 - Stefan Schulze RHP 2014
1. e4 d6 2. d4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. Bc4 Nd7 5. Nf3 c5 6. Ng5 {If 6....e6 then 7.Bxe6 leads to favourable White positions but it was better than....} 6... Nh6 {Which encourages White to get a Knight onto e6 in better circumstances than in the 6...e6 variations.} 7. Bxf7+ Nxf7 8. Ne6 Qb6 9. Nxg7+ Kf8 10. Ne6+ {Htun Zaw Tin in the Nunn book retired here.} 10... Kg8 11. Nd5 {Black has to give up the Queen or allow Nxe7 checkmate. (11...Qa5+ 12.Bd2). Black resigned.}
As I type this the year 2018 is taking it’s last breath so I’ll take a brief look
back at my games in 2018. Don’t worry, I’ll make this very a brief look back.
The figures are quite close, same number of wins and draws with either colour
I played 232 games winning 180 (90 with White and 90 with Black) I managed to
draw 24 games (12 with White, 12 with Black) lost 13 as White and lost 15 as Black
Two of my glorious losses were under 10 moves. They were from Hardcore events
where you have to finish 40+ games in 21 days and wonderful mistakes are plentiful.
greenpawn34 - Farzad Farsee RHP 2018
1. e4 {I always play this, I have 50 plus years of opening theory inside my little skull, not going waste it playing anything else.} 1... c6 {The Caro Kann or, as my friend The Duck calls it, the Carry the Can.} 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Bf4 {So much for 50 years plus years of opening theory. I'm making things up as I go along.} 4... Nd7 5. Bc4 {Cannot be too bad, I've got three bits out.} 5... Ngf6 6. Qe2 {I'm going for the trick. Nxe4 and Nd6 mate. I know it is a very shallow trick but me and knee deep chess get along quite well.} 6... Nb6 7. Bb3 Nbd5 8. Nxe4 {There is no doubt about it. I am a genius.} 8... Nxf4 9. Nxf6+ {I sent this knowing it was not checkmate and resigned.}
My other tale of woe in nine moves.
greenpawn34 - Melina67 RHP 2018
1. e4 c6 {Another Carry the Can. Usually do OK v this.} 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Bd3 {Offering my d-pawn. An idea I found in Tal's dustbin.} 5... e6 6. Nf3 Nd7 7. Qe2 Be7 8. Bg5 {I've just tossed out a piece and called it a developing move. It's a piece of nonsense.} 8... Bxe4 {Of course. One more move to make sure it's not a fluke.} 9. Bxe7 Bxd3 {No fluke. White is coming out of this piece down with zilch counterplay. I resigned.}
An interesting 2018 win by me with the White pieces.
greenpawn34 - falkowski RHP 2018
EVENT
?
[Event "?"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nd4 {Bird's defence to the Lopez. Not popular but playable.} 4. Bc4 {A common move on RHP here is 4...b5, played over 100 times and White can get a good game with 5.Bxf7+ and 6.Nxd4 but 5.Bxf7+ is only rarely played.} 4... Nxf3+ 5. Qxf3 Qf6 6. Qb3 {I'm not going to swap Queens. White has nothing after that.} 6... Nh6 7. Nc3 {With the obvious idea of Nd5.} 7... c6 {That...for now...stops that idea.} 8. d3 Ng4 {A nice waste of time to see. I was expecting 8...b5 when I had planned 9.Bxb5 and 10.Nxb5 and see what happens.} 9. f3 Nh6 10. Be3 {Still trying to tempt b5. In these Hardcore events. messy positions with tactics seem to work better than other time controls.} 10... b6 11. O-O-O Bc5 {That was the last chance for b5, now to get back to that Nd5 idea.} 12. Bxc5 bxc5 13. Nd5 {13...cxd5 14. Bxd5 is good for White.} 13... Qd6 14. Ne3 {I've redeployed the Knight.} 14... O-O 15. g4 Qf6 16. Nf5 {This open the g-file v the castled King.} 16... Nxf5 17. gxf5 Qg5+ {Another move I was glad to see. My King gets tucked away from annoying checks and I get Rg1 with tempo.} 18. Kb1 a5 19. Rhg1 Qf4 20. Rg4 Qxf3 21. Rdg1 {Looking good. Black cannot play g6 with a White pawn on f5 and the f7 pawn pinned.} 21... d5 22. Rxg7+ Kh8 23. Qc3 {Quite easy to see. 23...dxc4 24.Rg8+ Rxg8 25.Qxd5+ mates,} 23... f6 {I was expecting 23...d5. Now for a wee trick based on a Rook sac.} 24. Bxd5 cxd5 25. Qxc5 {I'm not threatening the f8 Rook I am aiming at the square e7.} 25... Ba6 26. Rxh7+ {Too allow Qe7 with a check.} 26... Kxh7 27. Qe7+ Kh6 28. Qg7+ Kh5 29. Qh7
No trouble selecting my best Black win of 2018. I’ve given this before. It’s a goodie.
Kratic - greenpawn RHP 2018
Notes will based loosely on what I was thinking.
1. Nf3 Nc6 {And why not?} 2. b3 e5 {Well if you don't want the centre then I'll stake a claim.} 3. Bb2 d6 4. e3 Nf6 {Just develop, see what happens.} 5. Bb5 Bd7 6. O-O a6 7. Bxc6 Bxc6 8. d3 Be7 {Just develop, see what happens.} 9. Nbd2 Qd7 {Plan A. 0-0-0 and throw my Kingside pawns at him.} 10. e4 {That c6 Bishop is blocked. But I'll get f5 in with a pawn or a piece. Stick to Plan A.} 10... O-O-O 11. Nc4 g5 {Plan A.} 12. Ne3 {That Knight is going to f5. I'll shift it later with a Queen move and Bd7. Meanwhile Plan A....} 12... h5 13. Nf5 h4 {Plan A needs White to take something and open a file for my Rooks.} 14. Nxg5 {Thank you.} 14... Rdg8 {The correct Rook because it is offering the f7 pawn with Nxf7 hitting the h8 Rook when I had in mind what happened in the game. If you set a trap make it look at first glance attractive. Here we all play first glance chess.} 15. Nh3 {There is nothing quite like setting a trap and waiting to see my opponent falls into it. I've lost games just for the thrill of the wait by setting a trap. It's a character flaw I cannot shake.} 15... Qxf5 {He did not fall for Nxf7 but with the Knight on h3 this is even better and totally unexpected.} 16. exf5 Rxg2+ 17. Kh1 {Maybe the lad went into this on purpose thinking all I have is a draw. Check All Checks. (especially Double Checks.} 17... Rg1+ 18. Kxg1 Rg8+ {White resigned, he is getting mated.}
We end this short trip down memory lane with a problem/study.
White to play and win.
A good one this for teachers to show a class.
FEN
7R/K6P/8/8/k7/8/8/7r w - - 0 1
[FEN "7R/K6P/8/8/k7/8/8/7r w - - 0 1"] 1. Kb6 {The only move that wins. The threat is Ra8+ and h7-h8. If 1.Kb7 Kb5 draws as you will see.} 1... Kb4 2. Kc6 Kc4 3. Kd6 {White keeps up the threat of Rook Check and h7-h8.} 3... Kd4 4. Ke6 Ke4 5. Kf6 Kf4 6. Rf8 {The winning idea. If the White King was now on f7 and the Black King on f5 then 6...Rxh7+ 7.Kg8 Kg6 draws.} 6... Rxh7 7. Kg6+ {And wins.}
