The Chess Retirement Cake

I recently retired from work. The gang baked me and gave me a chess cake!


Not too clear, hang on I’ll put a yellow folder behind it.


That’s better.


Jonathan Rowson in his book ‘Chess for Zebras’ talks about players being
f-pawn trigger happy when players with both colours cannot wait to throw
the f-pawn at their opponents very often realising right away it is a blunder.

Some drastic examples from RHP players where f7-f5 allowed a winning check.

kb5 - stephensmith RHP 2009


And we cannot get more drastic than 13...f5 14.Nxe7+ Kh8 15. Ng6 Checkmate.

weaselboy - LFTHNDMNN RHP 2020


Black lashed out with 14...f5 15.Qxe6+ wins a piece 1-0

White too suffers from this f-pawn fixation, in fact I found more examples with
White dropping a loose piece to a Queen check after an f-pawn push than Black.

mcmahon - Malus99 RHP 2013


Everything is ticking over nicely, suddenly White plays 11.f4 Qd4+ and then Qxc4.
Dozens (nay 100’s) of White RHP players have lost a loose Bishop on c4 this way.

Edward de Vries - MultiPlayerRo RHP 2009


How about 15.Bc3 Qg5 and then 16.f4 that gets things moving along nicely.
Instead White forgot about the unprotected Knight on a4. 15.f4 Qd4+ and Qxa4.

Here you have an advantage in OTB chess, you can actually see the move on the board
before you play it. After your f-pawn push, make sure any coming check is not a winner.



Crossy Fox - mig21 RHP 2020


All white need do was 46.Rc3 + first and then promote. But 46 c8=Q Re1 checkmate.

Daniel Prieto Zoreda - Jedisharp RHP 2020


White promoted and was mated with Rh1. 63.Kh6 was the move Black cannot
play 63...Kf6 to keep the threat of mate on the because then 64. h8=Q is with a
CHECK!. After 63.Kh6 The Rook has to give itself up for the pawn, it is a draw.

bencloud - moonpie1 RHP 2018 (a lucky night at the casino)



The last one is good. It was this game that kicked off the search for more

pbrown4 - fooze 2018


The game went 39.b8=Q Rh2 checkmate but it could have been saved.



I’m still entering the Aitken games from his 45 score books, (I’m on book 9!) so a
couple of interesting moments to share from the 400+ games I’ve already entered.

We mentioned trigger happy f-pawns. Look at this case of double f-pawn blindness.

H. Russell - J. Aitken Oxfordshire v Wiltshire, England 1932


Black played 13...f5 and White cannot play Qxc6 because Bd5 would trap the Queen.
Aitken is usually good at these tricks. But here both players do not look deep enough.




Another Aitken game is in!. I’ve played over enough of this lad’s games, maybe
more than anyone else. Anyone can tell from his games he was a good player
But like us all he did he did slip up and here he even gives himself a double ??


From book 7. The critical position is actually the first position in:



When we blunder it is expected, Aitken blunders and it makes the books.

D. Yanofsky - J. Aitken, Hastings 1946


Black played 29...Qd5. (the position in the book) White replied 30 Rd1 and 1-0



The thread accompanying this blog is Thread 187474