Jan-08-23 Showalter vs C Locock, 1897
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shallowred: 12.g5 cuts off the escape for Black's Bishop. If 12... BxP then 13.RxB QxR is a Decoy Sacrifice that un-protects the Bishop and allows 14.BxB; getting 2 Bishops for the Rook. Showalter makes the tactic work in the next few moves (even though Black doesn't play BxP immediately). |
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Jan-03-23 Pillsbury vs Blackburne, 1896
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shallowred: 26... Ra6! is a combination of 2 'Invisible' attacks: A Horizontal Attack by the Rook along with a Backward Attack by the Bishop. Either are not naturally noticed by Humans since we are wired to think of Attacks as forward-events. Our eyes face-forward, as all Predator's eyes do. |
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Jan-02-23 Tinsley vs J F Barry, 1896
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shallowred: 22. f5 would increase the scope of White's Bishop (which is traded on move 41, weakening White's position).
The computer couldn't decide on White's 22nd move: going back and forth between e5 and Tinsley's move of Ke3. |
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Dec-23-22 Burn vs Marshall, 1911
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shallowred: Burn was 62 years old when he won this game, and he beat Marshall again a year later. Cool-tempered resilient players (like Burn and Lasker) were still full of fight in their retirement years. |
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Jun-28-22 Burn vs Metger, 1887
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shallowred: The text is incorrect; 16. Qg4 was not played by Burn. It loses a pawn to 16... NxP 17. Qe2 (or 17. BxN QxB). Burn actually played 16. Qg5 to protect the Pawn and to keep the Queen on the dark squares, with the potential of Qh6. |
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Mar-28-22 Amos Burn 
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shallowred: Burn shows up for 25 straight years on the Chess.com YouTube graphic 'The Best Chess Players Over Time (Estimated By Accuracy)' -- Not bad |
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Feb-22-22 Burn vs Mackenzie, 1886
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shallowred: Both masters played very well, and Mackenzie took full advantage of Burn's missed-win (see the post by Benzol above). After this loss, Burn is down 4 wins to 0 in a race to 5 wins but (as noted in both men's bio) Burn battles back and ties the match (+4, =2, -4). |
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Jul-03-21 Burn vs J Watkinson, 1871
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shallowred: Giving names to Master Maneuvers helps me learn: White transforms Black's Queen-Block into a Pin using a Delayed Knight Fork (King moves out of check, QxQ, KxQ then the fork is resumed: NxB). |
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May-06-21 Zukertort vs Burn, 1886 
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shallowred: Yeah; too bad, it could have been an interesting game. But Zukertort's blunder shouldn't keep us from learning from Amos. His play after 24.f3 is instructive. 25... Qd5 (nice pin) and 26... Re8 (do you call that a pre-pin?) would have got his g4 Knight out with even material, or ... |
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May-04-21 Bird vs Burn, 1886 
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shallowred: These two masters played an 18 game match a month before this tournament. They tied 9 to 9 with no draws. They each stubbornly stuck to their openings throughout the match; and then again in this game. My kind of players. 24...g5 wins a piece. 54...Bf5+ wins the Exchange. Cool ... |
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