Tuesday 7 January 2014

Help wanted

On the weekend I mentioned a 'bar bet' type chess game where the stronger player (a GM for the purpose of this story) gives the weaker player an unlimited number of moves at the start of the game, with the stipulation that no piece cross the halfway line.
While it may seem an interesting way of giving odds, there is one flaw in this setup. A sufficiently clever 'mark' can construct a position where White (assuming the weaker player is White) can force checkmate against any Black defence.
But having told this tale, I cannot find the original story (which contains the solution) in my collection of books. My faint memory of where I read it leads me in the direction of Reinfeld, Chernev or Soltis, but I'm not ruling out any other sources.
Does this story ring a bell with anyone, and if so, where did you read it?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd peruse a e4,Bc4,Qf3 position as white

Anonymous said...

This isn't a forced mate, if the GM can play Nf6 on their first move.

The peice says, you can have any many moves as you want not passing the 4th rank, then the GM moves.

Anonymous said...

1.h4 2.a4 3.Ra3 4.Rhh3 5.Nf3 6.Re3 7.c3 8.Qc2 9.Qe4 10.Qf4 11.d3 12.Nfd2 13.Ne4 14.Rhf3 15.Na3 16.Nc4 has a mating attack.