A picture of my most prized possession and loads
of RHP examples of the Hook Mate (curtesy of Chessicle).

Finishing of course with another cartoon.

My Most Treasured Chess Possesion + Hook Mates.

Blog 4

That last example where he does it like a "pendulum".. quality

The Pendulum. I like it.

This is the Pendulum Problem. White to play and win.

the hook mate. quite complicated for me to see such things. is like a blind spot.

Hi tharkesh.

You pulled one off. 🙂

tharkesh - cosme RHP March 2011 Final Position. Game 8251084


OK you were hammering him but you have one under your belt.

In the actual game you could have wrapped it up better using the Hook M.P.

If the lads are not going to resign against you when getting hammered
(and why should they?) then you can have some instructive fun.

oh, what a game... lacking behind on my own game analysis, and this one is full of strange moves (= blunders) from both sides. but cosme was a very nice guy to play with, i enjoyed a lot...and apparently i learned from it a lot, too...

thinking the knight is difficult for me - this hook-like behavior is difficult to see. but thats what i like about your current blog ideas, the mating patterns are shown and i certainly will scan for those from now on... in particular during the difficult middle-game, where options outnumber reason by far...


by the way: your skill in finding these patterns is astonishing, again and again. you might rely on silicon support, but even with that, i couldn't distinguish the true promising patterns from the non-sense ones...

"thinking the knight is difficult for me..."

This was dropped on me a few years ago.


The Black Queen NEVER moves. The Knight cannot take the Queen
nor can the Knight move onto a square attacked by the Queen.

Set up on full sized board - do it in your head for full benefit.

Get the Knight from b1 to c1.

Having acheived this. (eventually). Test it by moving the Knight.
Remember the Knight must never land on a square attacked by the Queen.

You should now have this.


Again in your head get the Knight from c1 to e1


Then from e1 to f1 till you cover the whole first rank.
Ignoring of course a1, d1 and g1 as these are all attacked by the Queen.


Then from here get the Knight to a2 and from there to c2. etc
going along each rank left to right landing on an unattacked square
in that order left to right. (you can skip the 4th rank).

You have to clear the whole board in that order ending up on g8 (h8 is attacked)
Do each mini-test in your head. Some are 5 seconds solutions, others......

It will most likely drive you insane but when they lock you up you will
have mastered the Knight Move.

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Edit: (The Blog: How do I do it?) I dropped this exact postion like this into the DB


with 1-0 + mate. and said; "Go find."

I then moved the pattern along the ranks and switched the Knight about
then I did the same with Black (0-1 + mate).

I found at least one example from each set postiton in some cases dozens.

But the rest is me. That game where I am figuring out what is in the player's heads.
(see below) You won't get that from a DB. That's me and my experienced
eye stepping in. Right or wrong I'm offering the reasons why.

Lifted from the Blog.

mrshogi - Imnotkasparov RHP 2005

Where we back track seven moves before the mate and see what is going
on in both players minds.

Thanks, very good work there.

I hope this one sinks in for me, as I really struggle with rook + knight mates. Cheers.

Great Blog post, as always!

Question: How did you get a database of so many RHP games?

Originally posted by greenpawn34
"thinking the knight is difficult for me..."

This was dropped on me a few years ago.

[fen]8/8/8/8/3q4/8/8/1N6 w - - 0 1[/fen]
The Black Queen NEVER moves. The Knight cannot take the Queen
nor can the Knight move onto a square attacked by the Queen.

Set up on full sized board - do it in your head for full benefit.

Get the Knight from b1 to c1.

etc

Hi Chessicle

That's a Knight Tour it can be done and has quite a few solutions.
The difference with the one I have posted it there is a Queen there
and the Knight can visit the same unprotected square time and time again.

In a genuine Knights tour the Knight can only land on each square once.

Hi TimmyBx

I went to St. Philip Neri School in Edinburgh where I am the Chess Coach.
I and gave fifty two pupils each a letter and they had to enter into a DB
all the games played by players on RHP under that letter.

I then complied the DB, deleted the doublers...Wallah!....a DB of games.

Originally posted by greenpawn34

I and gave fifty two pupils each a letter and they had to enter into a DB
all the games played by players on RHP under that letter.

Achievement - You can do anything you set your mind to when you have vision, determination, and an endless supply of expendable labor.

http://www.despair.com/achievement.html

🙂

Ha - there really is a St. Philip Neri school...

All I know about him is he is the patron saint of practical jokers.

Originally posted by greenpawn34
Ha - there really is a St. Philip Neri school...

All I know about him is he is the patron saint of practical jokers.