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Joost van Ruitenburg vs Sandro Castellani
"A Random Walk Down Chess Street" (game of the day Apr-21-2014)
ch-NED U20 (2000), Leiden
Trompowsky Attack: Edge Variation (A45)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

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Kibitzer's Corner
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Feb-04-09  WhiteRook48: on the other hand, maybe Black was trying to do a king hunt
Feb-05-09  WhiteRook48: for some reason I keep looking at this game multiple times a day
May-03-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: At least White got his king safely castled.
Oct-07-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  GrahamClayton: 18..ef5?? 19.♗b5+ - the centralised White King is a key attacking piece - Wilhelm Steinitz would have approved of Van Ruitenberg's play!
May-12-11  whitesupremacist: Ruitenburg is the King of Kings!!! Great talent!!!
Apr-21-14  backyard pawn: Nice! White switched back ranks!
Apr-21-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: The pun is a takeoff on an investment book, "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rand...). Such strategies may pay off in the fantasy world of the corporate boardroom, but not as often in the cold, hard reality of the chessboard.

It's not that hard to get your king to rook eight in the middle game. Winning is somewhat more difficult. One of the few comparable games I know of is C Van de Loo vs M Hesseling, 1983, though R Steel vs NN, 1886 rates an Honorable Mention.

Apr-21-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  al wazir: Everything I thought I knew about chess is wrong.
Apr-21-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: Once in a team chess game against Vince Berry, his king walked from e1 to g8, whereupon I flagged. One of the most amazing things I've ever seen. I had a game on FICS once where my king went from e1 to h6, which gave me a draw by perpetual check, except that I had no time left and flagged. Sigh.
Apr-21-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: For more examples of steel kings (as Tim Krabbé calls them), see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_...; F Konings vs T Batceceg, 2003 - analyzed by Krabbé at http://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess2/... (No. 218); and http://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess2/... (No. 320 - but Black resigned in a winning position instead!)
Apr-21-14  Doniez: I didn't know this player, van Ruitenberg, but looking at his games, I found he likes the Tromposky and played some nice games (winning the most of them) and some funny combinations.
Apr-21-14  goodevans: <WhiteRook48: 11.... Bxe3+?? blunders a piece>

Yes, but...

After 12.Kxe3 cxd4 13.Kf4 dxe5 14.Nxe5 Nxe5 15.Kxe5 black has two pawns for the piece and white's K is out in the middle. So, I guess black assumed white would retreat rather than play 13.Kf4, after which 13...dxe5 gives him three pawns for the piece and a powerful centre.

11...Bxe3+ may be a mistake but I wouldn't call it an outright blunder. I'd have been tempted to go there myself!

Apr-21-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  Richard Taylor: I had a game that started off with a similar opening i.e. 1 d4 Nf6 2 Nc3 and then 3 Bg5 (the Torre I think it is or the Velmirovic) and I deliberately, to make the game exciting, chose a more complex course and walked my king towards h6. I nearly got there, but then I decided to stop at g5 or somewhere. I have the game somewhere, it was pretty crazy.

But I've never seen a King go quite so far.

There's Short's famous game of course, and Keres walked I think it was walked his King right across the board (that was ingenious but again I think it was unnecessary)...

Joost van Ruitenburg could dine out for years on that game!

Apr-21-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  Richard Taylor: I wonder if poor old Sandro is like me and got confused, and wondered about move 20:

"Now, where did I put that King, I mean his King, where did it go? Am I allowed to ask him if he has taken the King away? (Did he hide his King? I s that what masters do? Is that how they win?) (Or perhaps he's a magician!?) But it's a bit unfair, because I was planning a King-side attack, or was I? What IS going on?! (Perhaps I'm in the wrong place, I'm sure I came here to play chess). Hmm: oh, there it is! Ah!! Surely that's not legal, it must be a doomed King, it right near all my soldiers. Oops! It's got away again! Is it a Super King?"

Apr-21-14  Funology: Hi Joost, nice job!
(Tim)
Apr-21-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: Many years ago I witnessed a game where Eugene Martinovsky was White that began <1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.dxc5 e6 4.a3 Bxc5 5.b4 Bxf2+!?> (Houdini says that simply 5...Be7 intending 6...a5 is best and a smidge better for Black; Martinovsky later suggested 5...Ne4 6.e3 Nxf2 7.Kxf2 Qf6+, but Houdini says 8.Nf3 Qxa1 8.Qc2! is close to winning for White) <6.Kxf2 Ne4+> (Houdini says 6...Ng4+ 7.Kg3 Qf6 8.Kxg4 is equal) <7.Ke3! Qf6 8.Kxe4 d5+> (Houdini prefers the immediate 8...Qxa1, with approximate equality) <9.Ke3! Qxa1 10.Qc2!> White is better (about .4 according to Houdini), and won in about 14 more moves. I think I have a copy of the scoresheet someplace.
Apr-21-14  kevin86: A twist: the winning king walks all the way to h8!
Apr-21-14  Mating Net: Such a long journey with the enemy Queen still on the board the whole way. Bizarre.
Apr-21-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  Once: Also known as castling <very> long.
Apr-21-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: Went to save this to a collection, only to scroll down and notice I already had!

Bizarre game, even for this outré line.

Apr-21-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  Richard Taylor: <FSR> Interesting. I won once in a similar position when someone played Nd2 with Bxf2+ I won the Rapid tourney that year in fact (B Grade). When I shoed it on here someone showed the same starting position between two over 2000 German players but White moved his King out and it lasted longer.
Apr-21-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: <Richard Taylor: <FSR> Interesting. I won once in a similar position when someone played Nd2 with Bxf2+>

Cf. Veitch vs J Penrose, 1950 (0-1, 10).

Apr-21-14  morfishine: Quite an illuminating game
Jan-10-15  Rookiepawn: After 24. Ra8 Black's back rank becomes White's.
Jan-10-15  sorokahdeen: Black always seemed to have just a little less development than he needed to have.

That is one bizarre middlegame.

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