Feb-13-10
 | | Phony Benoni: I think it was better for Showalter to play 29.Qg8+ instead. That way, he would be sure to get the queen sacrifice in without giving Caro a chance to resign. However, the move order in the game does come as a bigger shock. Could Black have been anticipating 30.Rxe8+ Kxe8 31.Qxc7? Looks like he gets mated anyway. Or maybe Showalter didn't see the queen sac before move 30. In any case, I think we can safely diagnose that Black's manuevers to win a pawn were ill-advised. |
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| Feb-13-10 | | syracrophy: The same result after 29.♕g8+! ♔xg8 30.♖e8+ ♖xe8 31.♖xe8# |
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| Feb-13-10 | | RandomVisitor: 22.f6! Qxf6 23.Bxe5 dxe5 24.Rc5 0-0 25.Rexe5 Rfd8 26.Rg5+  . |
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| Feb-13-10 | | mastermind7994: i just played a game with this variation yesterday... |
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| Feb-13-10 | | Once: A sparkling finish. It's a little ironic that one of the key components of the mate is black's own Rh7. If that wasn't there, black could wriggle out with 30...Kxg8 31. Rxe8+ Kh7. So why did black put his rook on h7? Here's the position after white plays 28. Qg3: 
click for larger viewWhite has a forced mate in all variations. His obvious threat is Qg7#, so any move which doesn't prevent that allows mate in 1. Fritzie finds junk like 28...Qe7 and 28...Qxe5 (mate in 5 and 3 respectively), but that's just a computer being ultra-logical (and ultra stoopid). Or black can try to hold g7 with his Rh8. Rh7 fails, as we have seen in the game line - mate in 3. The longest resistance comes from 28...Rg8, but even that is still mate in 7: 28...Rg8 29. Re8+ Rxe8 30. Rxe8+ Kxe8 31. Qxc7
click for larger viewWhite is ahead queen for rook, but he also has an unstoppable mate threat on e7. Again, Fritzie does the silicon equivalent of the dead cat bounce with 31... Rxg2+ 32. Kf1 Re2 33. Kxe2 Bf3+ 34. Kxf3 
click for larger viewNow on 34...Kf8, white has the luxury of four different mates in 1. And any other black move allows 35. Qe8#. So maybe 28...Rh7 wasn't so dumb after all. Black was sunk whatever he played. |
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| Feb-13-10 | | backyard pawn: Jackson Whipps Caro! |
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| Feb-13-10 | | ROO.BOOKAROO: Noboby commented on the excellent pun. When it's obviously good, people acquiesce in silence. When it's bad, they roar in sarcastic delight.
Why didn't B elect to castle earlier, especially queenside, when he saw the battery prepared kingside for a decisive assault? He had many chances to do so earlier, which would have changed the whole game. Bizarre. His obstinacy not to run for cover led to an unavoidable ending. |
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| Feb-13-10 | | TheTamale: Here's another pun: Caro Kann't |
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| Feb-13-10 | | Once: It's an okay pun, but not great IMHO. That's why I suspect no-one has commented on it. |
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| Feb-13-10 | | psmith: Given <RandomVisitor>'s line it looks like 23...f6 was Black's best defense. Can White break through then? |
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| Feb-13-10 | | psmith: By the way, you've got to love Showalter's name. His mustache was pretty cool too. And he played some sparkling games. |
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| Feb-13-10 | | kevin86: The last two moves make a good Monday puzzle. |
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Feb-13-10
 | | Richard Taylor: Last few moves played with style!
Somebody (a fellow kiwi who shall remain nameless on here) asserted, when I spoke of Marshall's reputation for "swindles", that Showalter was the man, and that he was known in chess circles in his hey day as "The Lion of Kentucky". Anyone else heard this? |
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Feb-13-10
 | | stoy: I have heard that he was called: "The Kentucky Lion". |
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Feb-13-10
| | Richard Taylor: Fair enough - non est idem? Interesting.
He certainly wasn't "Kentucky Chicken"! |
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| Apr-05-10 | | whiteshark: A Lion would never cheat on his wife.. but a Tiger wood. |
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| Nov-17-12 | | vinidivici: the puzzle 29.? could be interesting because there are 2 possibil |
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| Jun-17-25 | | Mathematicar: This game was featured in Vukovic's "The art of attack in chess", 1974, Zagreb, p. 14. |
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Kibitzing
sac: 29.Re8+