Try getting a modern sports fan to watch a b/w 1950’s football game.
They can’t. They want all the action replays, the arty farty camera angles,
the colour, the glitz, the awful music, those silly haircuts….
Chess is not like that.
Though this was played in the b/w era it is just as colourful today
as it was when it was first played.
(How was that for a modern impersonation of a Fred Reinfeld intro?)
Apscheneek - Amateur Riga 1934.
Franz Apscheneek won the Latvian Champion a few times in the 1920’s & 30’s.
He starts off a Queen down and then sacs….
No I won’t spoil it. Just enjoy.
Originally posted by greenpawn34WOW! What a mate!!!
Try getting a modern sports fan to watch a b/w 1950’s football game.
They can’t. They want all the action replays, the arty farty camera angles,
the colour, the glitz, the awful music, those silly haircuts….
Chess is not like that.
Though this was played in the b/w era it is just as colourful today
as it was when it was first played.
(How was t ...[text shortened]... other Rook.} 24... fxg6 25. Nh6# {That is checkmate. Beautiful....Absolutely Beautiful.}[/pgn]
golf has a handicapping system which (at least theoretically) means that an 18 handicapper should be able to play say Tiger Woods (who is probably plus 7 or 8) and have an even chance of winning. Has anyone done any research on what would be required in chess eg a 100 point difference equal a pawn or soemthing like like that ?
Every year my son's school has a chess match between the "old boys" and the current pupils in which the old boys have to sac a piece in the first six moves. Based on this, I reckon that about 40 ECF grading points difference makes piece odds an even game.
Having to actually give up the piece is, of course, even more difficult than taking it off the board at the start of the game, as the odds-giver has to give up several moves in the opening in order to jetison the piece.
This year I was on the current pupils' team for reasons which are too difficult to explain and I played a Grandmaster on top board (he was White). After a very exciting game, he managed to grab a draw when I failed to convert an easily won ending with less than a minute on my clock.
A few years ago there was a match between Terrence Chapman, a player not much stronger than me, and Garry Kasparov, who every sane person recognises as the best chess player ever, in which Kasparov gave, I think, odds of two pawns in every game. I was astonished at how close the match was. Maybe giving pawn odds is more difficult than giving piece odds. I wonder how many games are over before the queen's rook gets a move? I'd much rather start a game without my queen's rook than, say, my d and e pawns.