The Queen's Gambit and the Isle of Man

I share my medical condition, CBCB (Compulsive Buying of Chess Books)
with many other people but I think I have reached A+1 status and consider
myself a hopeless case beyond care or redemption. See my latest acquisitions.


Two copies of a book I already have, this is copies II and III.
One of the books is in Polish! I cannot understand a word of it.!
And it’s not even a proper chess book. It has the name of chess
opening on the cover and that is it. The rest of it is a made up story.

My only excuse is they were in a five for £1.00 box. So they only
cost 20p each and at least I got an introduction to the Blog out of it.


I am only going to use one diagram (they cost money) imagine I am using two boards.

There are two problems in the diagram to solve.

It is Black to play in the top left position and give checkmate in five moves.
It is White to play in the bottom right position and checkmate in three moves.

Yes the positions are a mirror image but in the top left position Black can only mate in
five moves. In the bottom right position, White can actually checkmate in three moves.

The Black solution Reveal Hidden Content
That was so easy you probably solved it before reading this. There is another
Black mate in five moves starting with 1...Ra7+ but the problem is how come
White can checkmate in three moves and yet Black can only do it in five moves

The White solution. Checkmate in three.

The bottom right puzzle is by Sam Loyd I added the top left puzzle thinking
it will either give you a good clue or you will think I’ve finally gone crazy.


Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, the winner of the Isle of Man FIDE event. He and
Hikaru Nakamura (2nd) have qualified for a place in the 2024 candidates.
(I have no idea why Vidit has two trophies, maybe he won this same event last
year and they never had a trophy to give him so are making up for it this time.)

The Top Ten Final Placings.


The 2024 Candidates has now filled up six of the eight player boards
Ian Nepomniachtchi, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Fabiano Caruana,
Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, Hikaru Nakamura and probably Nijat Abasov.
I say ‘probably’ because Magnus Carlsen has a board in the candidates
but has said he won’t take it. (but you never know - so watch this space.)

Some positions into puzzles from the Isle of Man with some RHP examples.

S. Royal - V. Murzin Grand Swiss, Douglas 2023 (Black to play}

Reveal Hidden Content

R. Adhiban - E. Iturrizaga Grand Swiss, Douglas 2023 (White to play)

Reveal Hidden Content

In TNT1959 - driveway RHP 2023 we saw the same idea.
Giving up a piece to lure the King onto a Skewering Square.

59.Be5 Kxe5 60.c7 a2 61.c8=Q a1=Q 62. Qh8+ and 1-0 However....


Just picking RHP games from 2023 I could show more than just a few incidents of
the RHP player needlessly allowing this pawn promotion and Queen Skewer trick.

rigidwithfear - ol53 RHP.2023 (Black to play)

Black played 48...Kg2. White promoted first and Skewered the new h1
Queen with 62 Qb7+ The move 48...Kxg4 would have avoided the Skewer.

Bart Foster 2 - Sistematico RHP 2023 (Black to play)

Black can clear the path for the g-pawn in six different ways but only
one move avoids the Queens coming off and the a-pawn promoting.
37...Kf3! (Black played 37...Kf2) Other Black King moves would
allow White to give a check on h8 or on b1 to take off the Queens.

Moving on to other Isle of Man moments and Red Hot Pawn examples.

V. Durarbayli - M. Bartel, Grand Swiss, Douglas 2023

White has just played 81.g5-g6 The chances are an RHP player would quickly play
81...d1=Q 82.f8=Q+ Rxf8 stalemate. But Black played 82...Rf6 and White resigned. .

Again from 2023 games with see needless stalemates involving a promotion.

voyageur119 - We 3elieve RHP 2023

27.g8=Q Nxg8 stalemate. 27...Qhh6 mate or 27...Qf5 mate was better.

brontosaurus - Jean Vanderley RHP 2023

Black is in check and should play 52....Kxc6 instead we saw 52...Qxc6 White
played 53.b8=Q+ Black had no choice but to play 53...Nxb8 it’s stalemate.

And of course no apologies for showing this next one again. Since posting it in
August this position has been popping up all over the place including FaceBook.
I feel very proud that I have played my part in rescuing this position from obscurity.

mcmahon - Allen Montgomery RHP 2023 (Black to play find the win)

1....g2+ 2.Qxg2 Rxg2 is stalemate and 1...Rxa8, which was played, is stalemate.


Finally we end with the shortest win of the tournament (14 moves.)

S. Mareco - J. Xiong, Grand Swiss, Douglas 2023


The thread accompanying this blog is Thread 198199