The Curse of the Chess Blog
By 13 Jan 22 on
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Red Hot Pawn member Venda won the book title competition with an
imaginative effort that is RHP based and original. I liked it because...
...I am the Walrus by The Beatle gives me an excuse to show my Green ‘Pawn’ McCartney.
Regular readers will recall what happened the last time I ran a win a book competition.
I sent the wrong book!
Instead of ‘Training for the Tournament Player’ which I had two copies of.
I sent ‘Secrets of Chess Training’ instead. Both are by Mark Dvoretsky so it
was an easy mistake to makes. Especially of you are a complete idiot like me.
Competition diehards are no doubt waiting for the next ‘win a good chess book’ quiz.
And thanks to an off chance visit to a charity shop I picked up a copy of a good book.
I do the bit on tactics (what else could I do). It ran to over 20 editions and was
translated into Spanish. (I own a book I helped write that I cannot understand!)
I have not yet thought up the ‘Win Mastering Chess’ competition. That’s it!
I’ll run a competition for the best competition idea to run the competition.
On the left of my book is the Soltis book on Carlsen which I have not yet got around
to giving it a full and complete review. It’s good and I recommend it. there, job done.
Also in the picture is another charity shop acquisition. The Portuguese Variation of
the Centre Counter. (The current trend is to call this opening The Scandinavian.)
This book is there because I entered my favourite no rating limit Hardcore tournament
just to try out as many of the book lines as I could. In answer to all 1.e4’s I played 1...d5.
The plan being to slow me down. because I move too fast at the start of these
tournaments. This worked. It did slow me down because 99% of my opponents
after three moves never played anymore book moves! I spent ages looking for the
move that was played only to discover it was not there. And in the 1% game where
my opponent was the only one who followed the book for eight moves. I lost!
(so much for that great idea. The Portuguese Gambit will be a future booby prize.)
The latest CHESS (January 2022) had a Christmas Quiz compiled
by Graham Phythian and from there comes the following position.
White, as usual playing up the board, to play and win.
The story goes that the player of the black pieces decanted to the bar preparing
to celebrate a win. He is a Rook ahead and will very soon have an extra Queen.
Your task as the player of the White pieces is to sober him up. I know it looks hopeless
but give it a go. I’ll you a give a good clue in the shape of a famous problem by Ropke.
White to play (obviously as White has only one legal move...which is another clue)
This must the easiest checkmate in 6 moves to solve.
So having seen that little beauty it should give you an idea on what to do.
White to play and win. (this too is a mate in 6 with best play)
Yet another clue, I’m too kind.
Consider sacrificing the Bishop and the Queen...it might work.
The Solution
I sometimes write for CHESS, in that issue I made up a game to go with the article.
It was as about Deep Blue hacking into online players accounts and getting them
banned. A Christmas piece of fun feeding off the current chess computer paranoia.
The Plot: Deep Blue out of spite and jealousy has logged into players account
(most had the password ‘Bobby1972’ ) and plays games like this making moves
for both sides. The players wake up, log on, and discover they have been banned.
Here is the original game that I (Deep Blue) butchered using creative license.
M. Euwe - R. Reti, Amsterdam 1920
The recent Women’s Rapid Championship found another victim for a trap/pitfall
that I mentioned a few years ago giving both RHP and over the board examples.
A. Paramzina - R. Brambilla ,Women’s’ Rapid Ch. 2021
and Niohoggr - ReadingMarc, Red Hot Pawn 2011
Next we see me snaring another player in ‘my’ trap. I have mentioned this one
on numerous occasions here. I’ve won with it OTB (twice), and on RHP thrice.
Greenpawn (me!) - Ad Parnassum RHP 2022
The thread accompanying this blog is Thread 191819
