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Hermann Helms vs Oscar Tenner
"Can You Break a Tenner?" (game of the day Mar-04-2012)
Offhand game (1942) (blitz), New York, NY USA, Feb-??
Italian Game: Evans Gambit (C51)  ·  1-0

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
a
1
b
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d
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f
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h
White to move.
ANALYSIS [x]
1-0

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

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Given 69 times; par: 16 [what's this?]

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 4 OF 4 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Jan-02-08  kevin86: A simple and brilliant mate in two moves. The first discovered check can be met by the capture of the checking piece-the second cannot as TWO pieces are checking.

Not how both players have pieces working together-too bad black's knights are attacking pieces while whites bishops (and knight) are mating the king.

Jan-02-08  alphee: Very smart and the final position with the 2 black knights side by side in front of the white king whislt the black one is mated by a white one on the 6th rank looks "surrealistic". In a 3.100.000+ games DB I did find only one game that includes the following position:


click for larger view

and it is a game between A.KARKLINS and E.MARTINOVKY in 1988 (C42) that finished as a draw.

Jan-04-08  DukeAlba: I can't believe I missed this one! I went for Nc6+ winning the queen but I completely missed the combination...Damn.
Jan-05-08  MostlyAverageJoe: < DukeAlba: I can't believe I missed this one! I went for Nc6+ winning the queen >

??? 12.Nc6+ Nxe2 13.Nxd8 does not win a queen. It loses the game an lets the black win.

Jan-05-08  DukeAlba: I can always count on <MAJ> to prove I'm an idiot...
Jan-17-08  RookFile: I think this was a blitz game.
Jan-11-09  WhiteRook48: what a checkmate
Nov-05-09  WhiteRook48: hanging knights
Mar-04-12  sevenseaman: Very pretty. I knew it was going to end in a double check, asking an <immoveable> K to move.

"Can You Break a Tenner?" Yes, you wanna sweep it up all in cents?

Mar-04-12  rilkefan: Was this played in public?
Mar-04-12  Once: There is something deeply wrong about excessive pawn grabbing in front of your own king. Here we have the black king temporarily stuck on e8, and so the last thing that black should do is willingly allow the e4 and e5 pawns to be gone.

Instead, black could have played ...

9...d6 followed by 0-0; or

9. Nxe4 followed by Nd6 and 0-0

And as lots of people have pointed out, 10. Qe2 should have been punished by 10...Bxf2.

Pretty finish, to be sure, but iffy opening play. A skittles game in the park?

Mar-04-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: Maybe Tenner should have stuck to the Two Knights. O Field vs O Tenner, 1923
Mar-04-12  crawfb5: <rilkefan: Was this played in public?>

It was a game played at 10 seconds/move, which was a common version of "speed" chess back in the day. Helms was in his 70s at the time. I'm not sure of the event.

Mar-04-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  Penguincw: Black's final move, seems very natural, but white has to blow ready.
Mar-04-12  Calli: "Hermann Helms, dean of the American chess press, brought off a pretty Queen sacrifice In a rapid transit game at the Marshall lightning tourney. The victim, the veteran Oscar Tenner, succumbed after only four minutes and ten seconds of play!" - H.R. Bigelow in his NY Post column of 14 Feb 1942.
Mar-04-12  rilkefan: Thanks for the comments on the time control, I'm submitting a correction slip.
Mar-04-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  playground player: The double check on the uncastled King--don't let this happen to you!
Mar-04-12  bischopper: like that mate of langer in time of take the queen for the black beware for his king
Mar-04-12  bischopper: <playground player:> everybody has a day where not look that we are doing...
Mar-04-12  galdur: Oops. Those black knights are sitting pretty though.
Mar-05-12  kevin86: This was a great finish;three pieces surround and trap a king---the three pieces being equal to the queen sacrificed.
May-04-16  hypercorby: I am new to the opening topic. Can you guys tell me what could be after 4...Bxb4, why is this important to not capture that pawn?
Apr-05-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: <hypercorby> 4.b4!? is a famous opening called the Evans Gambit. Black usually does accept the pawn with 4...Bb4. Then White plays 5.c3. After the bishop moves, White usually plays 6.d4. The idea of 4.b4!? is to sacrifice a pawn in order to gain time to construct a pawn center.
Apr-18-18  sea7kenp: I believe Black's 8th Move should have been 8 ... Ne2, preparing to Castle next move.
Apr-04-21
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: According to the <American Chess Bulletin> (1942, p. 42):

<"Off-hand game played in five minutes at the Manhattan Chess Club between H. Helms and Oscar Tenner, February, 1942..">

I haven't been able to narrow it down any more than that. They might not have even been using a clock. Just a couple of friends skittling away, talking the kind of trash old guys used in the 1940s.

And creating a little gem with a finish that will delight forever.

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