The Duck arrived South Africa and is being looked after by Tygert
Here is a picture of the package finally arriving.
On the back the re-wrapping done by the South African Customs thinking
there was possibly contraband inside.
The Duck Unwrapped.
New stop is hopefully New Zealand when WFM Helen Milligan plans to take The Duck
on a European chess tournament tour that will end up next year in St. Andrews
and I’ll be re-united with the Duck.
When I’m in the queue at my newsagents buying my Sunday papers
my fellow queuers often asked how…..
(no such word as ‘queuers’……..Russ)
When I’m in my newsagents buying my Sunday papers I’m often
asked by people in the queue how good is castling?
From round 1 of the 2013 RHP Championship.
White Castled Kingside
White won 1699
Drew 126
Black won 1514
White castled Queenside
White won 251
Drew 19
Black won 280
Black Castled Kingside
Black Won 1628
Drew 133
White 1448
Black castled Queenside
Black won 239
Drew 20
White 253
It appears based on those stats. It is safer and better to castle Kingside.
Both White and Black lost more game when they elected to castle Queenside.
Amongst those 1448 games where Black castled Kingside and lost is….
Arnoud (2338) - fishplant (1455)
Black here played 23…0-0 so White played 24.Qxh7 mate.
Amongst those 280 games where White castled Queenside and lost is….
sardodos (1397) - dikankan (2055) RHP Ch Rd1.
Thread 156078 and vivify is asking why Grandmaster games rarely end in checkmate.
and then Paul Leggett posted:
“"Stand by for a Greenpawn34 blog with a pretty one [checkmate] and a neat back-story, I'm sure...."
I don’t why they want to drag me into their discussion but here goes:
GM games do end in mate but very rarely between the worlds top 20 players which is all
the media seems to be interested in. So unless it's a neat wrap up it never makes it to
the magazine pages or as the 'game of the day' on the website.
In the thread some lad mention Kramnik missing mate one against him.
For those of you that have just come out of a seven year coma.
In Bonn in 2006 Vladimir Kramnik played Deep Fritz 10 and this happened.
Kramnik (Black) played 34…Qe3 and was mate with 35. Qh7.
Let us have a look at the preceding play.
To try and figure out what may have been going on I’ve enlisted my Fritz 6.
This is to try and give me an inkling of what a computer may be calculating.
I guess in reality (using F6 to suss out DF10) is like asking a 1400 along to help go
over a GM game. But in this instance 1400 player spots something I never saw.
I’ve often found this case true when actually going over games with so called weaker players (they are better at seeing and explaining things than they are at actually playing the game. I guess I fit in there somewhere.)
The hidden mate. (spotted in a flash by Fritz 6)
Missing mate in one against you is a standard oversight that happens to all chess players.
It unfair to drop in a blitz game, but all is fair in Blitz and Blunders so here is the next World Champion
elect walking into the first (and most famous?) mating pattern that every beginner should know.
Carlsen - Gagunashvili World Blitz Championship 2006
Magnus played e5 and was smartly mated with Rc1 mate.
Not too common however is missing mates in one for you.
(I’ve did it once in OTB play. I played another move which I thought was mate but my opponent
had a blocking move that prolonged my mate by three moves.)
When strong players, very strong players, miss mate in one for them it gives us all confidence.
Anand - Ivanchuk London 1994.
Here it is Ivanchuk to play.
Chucky chucked it with 29...Qf4+ and went onto to lose. He missed Qxh1 mate.
Finally and going back to the Kramnik - Fritz game.
Here is the final position after Qh7 checkmate.
There is one player on the planet who has no bragging at all over Kramnik’s oversight
and that player is donwillrett.
max92 - donwillrett RHP 2012
Sales of the this:
The book I co-wrote with plenty of new examples from RHP are going well.
Thanks to all those to say they are enjoying (and hopefully learning) what they have read so far.
books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377601976&sr=1-2&keywords=mastering+chess\" class="btn btn-sm btn-std"> Mastering Chess
Finally a picture of The Duck on the porch of Tygert’s house overlooking the Indian Ocean.
The thread accompanying this blog is Thread 156110
