Monday, 12 November 2007

The Case of the Curious Miniature

Paul Dunn (maintainer of the Ozbase games database) sent me the following game between Guy West and Ian Rogers. Rogers was still only an IM when this game was played, while West had yet to earn his title.
The game is remarkable in that West won in only 12 moves. Even more remarkable is the finish, where it seems that both players missed a save for Black (and wins for White).

West,G - Rogers,I [B06]
Winter Interclub Melbourne, 1981

1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.g3 Nc6 5.Be3 e5 6.dxe5 Nxe5 7.f4 Bg4 8.Be2 Nc4 9.Bd4 Nxb2 10.Qd2 Bxe2 11.Qxe2 Nf6 12.Nd5 1-0

The most obvious question is that of the game itself. Is the score accurate?
If so why didn't West play 11.Bxg7 (instead of Qxe2), Rogers 11. ... Bxd4 (instead of Nf6), West 12.Qb5+ (instead of Nd5) and finally Rogers 12. ... O-O! (instead of Resigns??)

(Of course I could just try and ask the players directly, but then I wouldn't have anything to blog about this evening!)

**Follow up: As noted in the comment section (and confirmed by GM Ian Rogers) the real game score (from move 10) was 10.Qd2 Bxd4 11.Qxd4 Nf6 12.Nd5 1-0

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The problems probably arose because the games back then were written in desciptive notation.
Black's 10th move was probably BxB on d4, not e2 and White's 11th QxB on d4 not e2. Then everything makes sense - except the quality of Black's play.