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Steven Morrison vs Thomas Keith Hemingway
"Hills Like White Elephants" (game of the day May-24-2010)
England (1952)
Italian Game: Two Knights Defense. Traxler Counterattack Knight sac line (C57)  ·  0-1

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
a
1
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
White to move.
ANALYSIS [x]
Notes by Stockfish 9 v010218 (minimum 6s/ply) 9.d6 Qxd6 10.c3 Bg4 11.Qa4+ b5 12.Bxb5+ Nxb5 13.Kxf2 ⩲ +1.31 (33 ply)-+ -3.44 (31 ply) 10...Nd7 11.Kxf2 Qh4+ 12.Ke3 Qh6+ 13.Kf2 Qf4+ 14.Kg1 -+ -4.41 (34 ply) 11.Qa3 Nc2 12.Qxe7+ Kxe7 13.Kxf2 Ne4+ 14.Ke2 Nxa1 15.d4 +- +3.46 (23 ply) ⩲ +1.44 (22 ply) 15.Ke1 Nc2+ 16.Kd1 Nxa1 17.gxh4 Bg4+ 18.Ne2 Rxh8 19.Rg1 ± +2.28 (22 ply)-+ mate-in-8-+ mate-in-7 after 16.d6+ cxd6 17.Bd5 Rf8 18.Nf7 Rxf7 19.Bg2 Rf219.Ng6+ hxg6 20.d6+ Kxd6 21.gxf4 Bf2# -+ mate-in-30-1

rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1
FEN COPIED

Annotations by Stockfish (Computer).      [35437 more games annotated by Stockfish]

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing>
May-17-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  keypusher: <teacake> Thanks, what a game! The combination starting with 23....c5 is so grand. Pretty finale too. Have you considered making a pgn and submitting it to the database?
May-17-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  keypusher: <teacake> Never mind, I submitted it myself. Here's hoping it gets added to the database soon.
May-24-08  teacake: re:<keypusher>
Thanks for your comments.
A diagram after 23...c5 and a pgn file would be useful, but I have no idea how to do either of these!
Jun-10-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  keypusher: <teacake>

See M Basman vs T K Hemingway, 1989 (where you can now download a pgn) and also Kibitzing Tricks, where you can learn to post diagrams, among other things.

May-24-10  newzild: What a mess!

I have no idea what happened in today's GOTD.

May-24-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: Not a bad pun. "Hills Like White Elephants" is a short story by Ernest Hemingway, as you probably guessed. But what makes it apt for me is how the White pieces sit around uselessly like white elephants.

<newzild> All 5.Nxf7 Traxlers are like this game. Perhaps this is not the opening for you.

May-24-10  CapablancaFan122: I can't seem to win with the Traxler. Just yesterday I played it and it went like this:

5..Bxf2+ 6.Kxf2 Nxe4+ 7.Ke3 Qh4 8.Qf3 and wham! No attack. I see all these wonderful games in the database and it makes me ask how they do it.

Traxler isn't for me I guess. Better stick with <4..d5>.

May-24-10  Once: The game ends with an instructive flurry of mate threats. With so many pieces hovering around the white king, it was never going to end well (for white, that is).

Fritzie confirms <ToTheDeath>'s post of two years ago. The losing move here is 15.Kg1. Instead 15.Kf2 looks level and 15. Ke1 gives white a small advantage.

But a messy, messy opening.

May-24-10  Cardinal Fang: <CapablancaFan122> Try 8. ... Ng5 9. Nxg5 Qxg5+ 10. Kd3 d5
May-24-10  xmachine: for White, 5.Bxf7+ is a much more safer way to approach the Traxler variation
May-24-10  CapablancaFan122: <CardinalFang> 8..Ng5 9.Qxf6.

Ahh, I guess I'll just stop playing the Traxler. :)

May-24-10  atakantmac: Great game by hemingway
May-24-10  ricardolopez: What about 14.d6+ ?
May-24-10  kevin86: The minor pieces win this one-black gives up both rooks for:

19...gxf4 ♗f2# ouch!!

May-24-10  Chessmensch: ...4.Bc5 was an interesting alternative to the usual ...d5 but was a terrible blunder. White then had black on the run until his own blunder of 15.Kg1, walking into a mating net.
May-24-10  DarthStapler: My favorite opening
May-24-10  tentsewang: I've read that short story "Hills like white elephant" by Ernest Hemingway, considered as the pioneer of literature in the 19th century. Nice game by T K Hemingway !!
May-24-10  TheaN: Possibly some users were surprised by pun as it being World of Warcraft related. I was, until I realized it was obviously about the writer Hemingway; something which was put far away into my memory (sadly WoW is more on top >_>). WoW has a LOT of tributes: this one an achievement whilst questing for Hemit Nesingwary (anagram of the writer's full name) called Hills Like White Elekk (elekks are the elephants in WoW) in which one has to defeat such creature.

For the complete WoW tribute to Ernest Nemingway check http://www.wowwiki.com/Hemet_Nesing... at the Notes section, first entry.

About the game..... Traxler counterattack at its best? Wonderful when it works, powerless when it fails.

May-24-10  Marmot PFL: Wrong century for Ernesto there. 19th was Poe, Dickens, Twain, Tolstoy, Jane Austen etc etc.
May-24-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  chrisowen: In earnest it was 15.Kg1 might have undone him. The Wilkes Barre is a tactical slugfest and drinks in complications, the importance of being booked up is paramount. Aint all pieces mindfully gathered on the kingside, whisky bravo! Nowadays I think apropos c3 is upstaged by 9.d6. Reguarding Hemingway the author, my Dad took me to his house in Key West where great Banyan tree grows. Then when visiting India, Juliet (a companion of mine) and I saw the original Bodhi Tree, still have the photos. Nice feat 18.Rxf4 rook sac shoulders white's defence peeling him away.
May-24-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  fm avari viraf: A very aesthetic combination in spite of White's reluntance to make the right moves & decides to go "Hummingly the Hemingway."
May-24-10  WhiteRook48: crushing
Jun-02-10  Cardinal Fang: <CapablancaFan122> There's nothing on f6...
Oct-30-10  sevenseaman: ... 18. Rxf4! The alternatives left to White are so short and crisp, that he cannot but decide resignation is the most appropriate one.
Mar-13-22
Premium Chessgames Member
  takchess: Need to memorize this and it should be my template for Kf1 Traxler
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