Knowing the little tricks

Inspired by a position I saw at today's Street Chess, here is a little study with White to play and win. As the winning idea is quite well known, I doubt this is an original creation, but  it does identify one key idea in positions of this type. In the actual game there were a pair of rooks (and the black pawns were a lot further advanced), which actually saw Black win.

Flat earthers miss out I guess

 For a brief moment, chess.com thought it would be a good idea to organise a $1,000,000 World Championship. The problem wasn't the prize money, which is certainly a hefty amount, but the name. As there is already an official World Championship, and I'm assuming FIDE haven't sold it off, there might have been a legal problem. So instead of a World Championship, the chess.com event is now the Global Championship. With this change I'm assuming everyone is now happy, except for the afore mentioned flat earthers.

Broadcast Services

 Broadcasting tournament games used to rely on having your own dedicated website. These days chess platforms have realised that such broadcasts can help bring users in, and have started offering it as a free service. Chess24 were probably the pioneers here, but other platforms are catching up. 

Both chess.com and lichess contacted me to stream the O2C Doeberl Cup this year, while 'Follow chess' normally carries it as well. If you are an organiser looking to use these services, each platform normally has instructions to follow (eg https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-to-broadcast-your-games-on-chesscom for chess.com) If you are using DGT software, setting up a cloud link for the games is normally all you need, and they can even add a broadcast delay uon request.

Obscure club games

 I usually enjoy getting feedback about this blog, even more so when it is face to face. One of the more recent comments (made in person), was that I include lots of 'obscure club games'. While these are normally my own games, I do feature games by other club players (if I can grab the scoresheets). 

This time however, it is one of my recent games that I will feature. The takeaway from this game is twofold. A missed tempo on the opening can lead to a space disadvantage in the middlegame. This then leads to problems defending an unsafe king.

Press,Shaun - Mildenhall,Stephen [A30]
Murphy Memorial, 12.04.2022

Russian Doll

 The 2nd series of "Russian Doll" (Netflix) has just been released, and I watched all 7 episodes over 3 days. In one of the episodes the two main characters are playing chess in a New York park, while discussing (or explaining) a plot point. The game ends with one player claiming checkmate and walking away, and the other player suddenly realising it is stalemate instead. 

Based on the shot of the board I think the game they played was composed by Sam Loyd, and is in fact the shortest game that ends in stalemate. The moves are 1.e3 a5 2.Qh5 Ra6 3.Qxa5 h5 4.Qxc7 Rah6 5.h4 f6 6.Qxd7+ Kf7 7.Qxb7 Qd3 8.Qxb8 Qh7 9.Qxc8 Kg6 10.Qe6=

More adventures in arbiting

 It has been a busy week for me, but the upside is I did get to add to my collection of weird chess incidents.

Todays Junior Rapidplay event was for Under 18 Juniors, which normally sees a little more commons sense play. Nonetheless there was a QvQ ending (without pawns) that was *not* draw after one player thought that they were losing their queen to a skewer, missing the fact that the king to move and defend their queen!

Reaching back to the Doeberl Cup there was a disputed result between two junior players in the blitz. Both players claimed they had one (which was kind of true), although one player said he won the 'real' game, but then lost the 'practice' game. The second player simply said there was no second game, and he won the only game. It turns out the first player did not report the result of either game, so we gave the point to the second player.

And finally (again at the Doeberl), there was the usual draw v resign dispute. A young player put his hand out, which was taken as a resignation by his older opponent. Only when the result was being entered that the 'mix-up' was identified. The younger player claimed he also asked for a draw when putting out his hand, but this was not heard by his opponent. So the players went back to the board, the position was re-established, and as the game was actually still in the balance, the game resumed. As fate would have it, the player who offered the draw then went on to win, which I feel was a little unfair to his opponent.

R v B

 During the ACT Junior Rapid Championships, I witnessed not one, but two R v B endings (no pawns mind you). As the players involved were relatively inexperienced, finding the correct defence proved elusive. It is a draw if the side with the Bishop can get their king into the corner of the opposite colour to the bishop, as stalemate tricks then save the day.

In the first case the weaker side got their king caught in the middle of the back rank and lost the bishop to zugswang. In the second game, the defending side found a better strategy, putting the side with the rook into check, and then pointing out an illegal move when the rook was moved. After resetting the position I pointed out that touch move still applies, after a brief moment of confusion, the player played RxB which was met by KxR.