The Hammersmith

That is the name for a game of chess that begins and ends
with the same move. To find out why you have to read Blog 4

Doodles + The Queen Fork Trick + The Hammersmith

Also unexploded bombs on the beach, the cartoon this week is a protection circle.
A Hammersmith theme.

Another AWESOME blog post!!

For the last one you wrote:

Checkmate. The e-pawn protects the Knight which protects the c-pawn which protects the Knight that protects the e-pawn which protects the Knight which protects the c-pawn which protects the Knight that protects the e-pawn which....etc..etc..

do you mean the *D* pawn instead of *E* pawn?

i.e.

Checkmate. The d-pawn protects the Knight which protects the c-pawn which protects the Knight that protects the d-pawn which protects the Knight which protects the c-pawn which protects the Knight that protects the d-pawn which....etc..etc..

Again, fantastic blog!! Loved the Hammersmith games!

They must be very rare because:

a) most games are not actually played out until mate
b) the person doing the mate has to chase the king all the way to his side of the board (probably missing shorter mates along the way)
c) if it is a mate by a pawn, that pawn would have to have been doubled at some point, since the same pawn, cannot make that move again (can't play e4 twice with the same pawn, has to be either the d pawn or f pawn, doubled to the e file).
d) Mating with a knight is more common than with a pawn, but few games start with a knight move on move 1.
e) Along the same lines, most games start with a pawn push, and checkmates with the pawn are rare.

Very cool!!!

Cheers,
Timmy

I fixed the d-pawn e-pawn thing - got confused with who was protecting what.

Have to say I am enjoying the challenge every week of finding something fresh.

I really do pity the serious writers who lay out their stall with GM and IM games.
There 'fun' stuff hides in the notes and even then it's often dry.
I have the real McCoy. These games really happened.

My feeling is that players really do learn from these games.
I know they do. I get enough PM's and have seen enough posts where
players show a move or an idea they picked up from the blog.

Yes look at and marvel at GM games (and pretend we understand half of
what is going on) but when was the last time you saw a GM with a won game
getting his Rooks forked like they were in the Dutchmatador - dutchman game.

This is grass roots Chess. This is where it is at.

Originally posted by greenpawn34

Have to say I am enjoying the challenge every week of finding something fresh.

ok trainspotter... here's your next challenge

Kings Cross - mate with both Kings at the wrong end of the board. If you find one with them both on the e file the beers are on me. @SG what's the minimum number of moves ?

And here's the challenge for the rest of the forum. Mates to train stations.

Hi thaughbaer

Found a game with BK on e1 and WK on e8 But Black screws it up and
mates White on a different square.

Have a mate with BK on f1 WK on F8 - does that get me ½ a pint.

Your post has given me an idea though. Instead of people going to strange
places like icebergs (very hard to emulate). How about the Absolute Anorak Award

Pictures of you playing a game of chess in a railway station.
A King's Gambit played in King's Cross would be an ideal start.
I'll do Waverly in Edinburgh Monday or Tuesday next week.

PM me your paypal and the cost of half a pint.. and not in some fancy wine bar..

For those of us, like me, who only speak "American"...

In British slang an anorak is a person who has a very strong interest, perhaps obsessive, in niche subjects. This interest may be unacknowledged or not understood by the general public. Although the term is often used synonymously with geek or nerd, the Japanese term otaku or the American term "fanboy/fangirl" are probably closer synonyms.

I'm really loving the blog posts a lot!! Great stuff! I certainly think that they are useful. I think that the repetition that you do, showing multiple examples of a theme (like the Queen mate threat, rook threat) are great.

I have no interest in looking over GM games, but I love looking at the types of mistakes that amateurs make, and the games you are presenting!

I write a free chess tactics email newsletter, that does sort of the same thing - take games between class players, look at the tactics that occurred in the game, and present it as a puzzle, and some analysis. I have about 120 people on my list, and have encouraged them to read your blog!! Check out http://tacticstime.com to sign up.

The book the Complete Chess Addict has a lot of fun, oddball chess themes in it. Might find some good ideas in there, if you can get a hold of it.

Cheers,
Tim

Originally posted by thaughbaer
ok trainspotter... here's your next challenge

Kings Cross - mate with both Kings at the wrong end of the board. If you find one with them both on the e file the beers are on me. @SG what's the minimum number of moves ?

And here's the challenge for the rest of the forum. Mates to train stations.

I have a feeling this isn't the fastest. Let's see if anyone can beat it:

I am thinking it would be hard to be much faster....

You have to have 7 moves for each king to get to the other side.

You have to make one pawn move for your king to get out.

You have to make at least one more pawn moves for the enemy king to be able to break through to the other side without walking through check.

You also have to somehow get rid of the rook or queen that is protecting the other pieces, so the enemy king isn't walking through check.

So that is a minimum of 10 moves for each side just to get to the starting position.

Then you have to mate the enemy king, which is the only area where someone could possibly speed up the whole process, if it is possible at all.

Nice work Swiss Gambit!

I don't think it could be quicker it seems SG has nailed it.

So have another stem game to show next blog + anorak theme.

Have loads of exmples of royal throne swapping with White & Black
(need a better name than royal throne swapping.)

[fen]3kq3/8/8/8/8/8/8/8 w - - 0 1[/feb]
The King and Queen swap squares and the King is mated.
Will make that the next theme.

greenpawn34 had a typo, so the position didn't show up. I think he meant this...



and a clever title might be "Game of Thrones" (after the popular book, and HBO TV series) 🙂

Cheers - hit b instead on n - making a feb instead of fen.

(that is a position that will only show up in February)