Nov-06-10 | | miseiler: Smother mate is best mate. |
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Nov-06-10 | | Elsinore: The ending reminds you of Morphy v. TJ Bryant, "Giants beat Patriots", the way white pushes up his g pawn to pressure the queen. I know Morphy pushed up the h pawn, but it's similiar! |
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Nov-06-10 | | Elsinore: Was this really a lose? Couldn't black force perpetual check here? After 24. G4, its 24. Qxh3, 25. 25.Nf7+ Rxf7, 26.Qxf7. Then 26. Qxg4+, ect. ALSO, Could black win with 26. Bxf2+, Rxf2, Qxg4+, Kh2, Qh4+, Kg2, Qf2+, Kh3, Qg2+, Kh4, Rc4#. Hope I didn't miss something obvious. |
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Nov-06-10 | | Cuew: No, not Qxf7, Qe8+ |
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Nov-06-10 | | Elsinore: <cuew> Yeah. Like I said, I hope I don't miss something obvious. I was looking at white going for the philidor mate. |
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Nov-06-10 | | Nullifidian: <Elsinore: Was this really a lose? Couldn't black force perpetual check here? After 24. G4, its 24. Qxh3, 25. 25.Nf7+ Rxf7, 26.Qxf7.> You did miss something obvious. 26. ♕e8+ ♖f8 27. ♕xf8#. In fact, after 24... ♕xh3, Black can at best only hold out for four more moves, ending in a smothered mate: 25. ♘f7+ ♔g8 26. ♘h6++ ♔h8 27. ♕g8+ ♖xg8 28. ♘f7#
This smothered mate threat is why Black gave up. Any attempt to save the queen results in mate. |
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Nov-06-10 | | Nullifidian: This game wasn't so much won by Napoleao as it was lost by Vianna. Vianna held the edge for most of the game, but let it slip through his fingers. Even then, the game wasn't lost (only drawn) until 22... ♙f6??, which is one of the worst moves I've ever seen in a GOTD. |
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Nov-06-10 | | Once: To understand 22...f6, we need to look at the move that preceded it - 22. Qe5. A while back, I humbly offered the chess world the concept of the "shoo" move - a little pawn push to try to kick away a major piece that has trespassed into your territory. Today I would like to introduce a companion to "shoo". In this position, we have the "boo!!" move. Let me explain. Here is the position before 22. Qe5:
 click for larger viewMaterial is level and both sides have their chances. As <Nullifidian> rightly says it's a pretty level position. But with 22. Qe5, white announces "Boo!!" - the double exclamation marks are mandatory, I am afraid, to get the right effect. A boo!! move is one which looks immediately threatening and scary. And here the threat is of course Qxg7#. For added dramatic effect, you might also like to bang the piece down with a thump, smile and stand up. Sheer gamesmanship, of course. Not the sort of thing that a gentleman would do. But occasionally very effective. And what does our opponent do when we bang out a boo!! move? The good players stay calm, look for a defence, analyse coolly and, more often than not, throw the boo!! move back in your face. But sometimes, boo!! has the desired effect. The other guy is startled, plays an inferior move or sometimes even resigns on the spot. And that is what happens today. After 22. Qe5 (boo!!), black should play something sensible like Qh6 or Qg5. White can't get too aggressive with his kingside pawns because his own king is windy. Instead black plays the instinctive 22...f6 and the rest is history. The more attentive will spot that 22. Qe5 is a boo!! and 22... f6 is a shoo, but now we are just getting silly. |
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Nov-06-10 | | sfm: The situation, where, say, White
- checks with the queen from somewhere on the a2-e6 diagonal - a knight can check on f7 when the black king goes to h8 - the f7 square is only covered by a black rook on f8 - when the knight checks on f7, the rook must capture the knight to prevent the smothered mate - but Black is then faced with a back-rank mate instead is a theme we have seen more than a couple of times. |
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Nov-06-10 | | David2009: A Napoleao vs J Caldas Vianna, 1880 Black to play 23..?
 click for larger view
As others have pointed out 23...f6? was a blunder in a complex position. <Once> puts it well: the threat is more apparent than real.
After 23...Qh6! the plausible 24 f6 blows up in White's face after 24...Nc6. Meanwhile, Black is threatening Rxb2 and Qxd6. After 23...Qh6 the best I can find for White is 24 Rab8 losing the Pawn on f5 later. Crafty End Game Trainer link to explore the variations further (White starts Qe5) http://www.chessvideos.tv/endgame-t...
You are white, drag and drop the move you want to make. |
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Nov-06-10 | | TheRavenPK: <Once> :D:D shoo and boo - shoo's evil chess twin :D |
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Nov-06-10
 | | chrisowen: Footf6 howler! In god's name ferris wheel keeps on turning after 22..Qh6 and glass white force half empty? Merri go round bull lurch eerie prank slav in defence vanguard gip see pawn height restriction. Tiffin mouth black Vianna whirl oh crumbs g4 wedge still works! It was a high perch chipping in knight dinner dodge rc2 and blot out. |
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Nov-06-10 | | kevin86: Black's queen must move away-and smothered mate (or a back row mate) is in the offing. |
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Nov-06-10 | | Elsinore: <Nullifidian> I know. After 24.Qxh3, Nf7+. Cuew threw it at me first. The mating combo after that is so simple I'm actually embarrassed that I missed it. After Rxf7, I saw that black had moves available with his queen, so I just had white take the rook instead of Qe8 in order to give black those moves. |
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Nov-06-10 | | WhiteRook48: oh my gosh, then we have nf7+
philidor's has hardly ever been used |
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Nov-06-10 | | Chess Carnival: hmmm.. this pun sounds familiar |
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Nov-06-10 | | bobfixer: <Once> Good advice; I think I will win a few more games!! |
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Nov-06-10 | | weisyschwarz: Pun: How about "Napoleao Complex". A short but powerful game. |
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