Really???

LOL LOL

He should've checked his scoresheet and then would have put his queen back correctly. Poor Darryl.

First, lets define 'scarlet':

noun 1. a bright-red color inclining toward orange

adjective 4. flagrantly offensive: Their sins were scarlet

Second, lets analyze the phrase 'Scarlet Johansen'; This obviously refers to American born actress, Scarlett Johansson, who from what I can tell, doesn't play chess and spells both her first and last name differently than Darryl Johansen, who does play chess

Third, lets look at what happened in the game. From the comments:

"Johansen moved his queen to c6, keeping his hand on the piece, but decided to think about the move some more and so put the queen back. The only problem was that he put the queen back on b5 instead of b6"

This whole sequence seems suspect since it implies that its OK to pick up one's piece(s), check out various squares, and even return the piece(s) to the original square while one continues his/her analysis, all in the middle of a tournament game!?

This is not to be confused with the process or act of "J'adoube" where one adjusts a piece within its square, so everything looks neat and tidy.

In conclusion: We can translate the two definitions of scarlet and apply them to Johansen and arrive at (1) Red Johansen or (2) Offensive Johansen

For (1) to be funny, we'd have to be familiar with the term 'red in the face', which I'm assuming the reference would then be that Johansen was 'red in the face' after realizing his error

For (2) to be funny, we would have to assume that moving one's pieces around is offensive to the opponent, if not an outright breach of chess rules, or at the very least, etiquette.

Actually in this case, both apply since his offensive actions and subsequent error, left him red in the face. I guess...

But what about Scarlett Johansson? Ideally, she would've been the culprit in this game, allowing us to say "Scarlett's actions were scarlet in the extreme, while the subsequent error left her red in the face"

<FSR> Very humble of you to display your Queen loss. Hey, lets have a contest to see who lost their Queen in the most outrageous fashion? I'm reminded of when my brother was playing a 2-min game as Black and reached this position:

click for larger view

Here, Black played the incredible 4...Bxd1!!! snaring the White Queen.

The White player exclaimed "Did you see that, he just took my Queen! How did I miss that?"

So, a few questions:

One, in <morfishine>'s brother's case, if that had been a tournament game would the illegal move stand and the resignation be the outcome? Or would the illegal move cancel the resignation? If that's the case, then would the illegal move be retracted and the game reset with black to move?

Its hard to imagine it happening in an actual tournament game since the opposing party would know the position and most moves are not made quickly like in the quick 'flim-flam' manner that my brother did.

Heidenfeld - Kerins, Dublin 1973

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Be3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Nf3 Qb6 8.Qd2 c4 9.Be2 Na5 10.O-O f5 11.Ng5 Be7 12.g4 Bxg5 13.fxg5 Nf8 14.gxf5 exf5 15.Bf3 Be6 16.Qg2 O-O-O 17.Na3 Ng6 18.Qd2 f4 19.Bf2 Bh3 20.Rfb1 Bf5 21.Nc2 h6 22.gxh6 Rxh6 23.Nb4 Qe6 24.Qe2 Ne7 25.b3 Qg6+ 26.Kf1 Bxb1 27.bxc4 dxc4 28.Qb2 Bd3+ 29.Ke1 Be4 30.Qe2 Bxf3 31.Qxf3 Rxh2 32.d5 Qf5 33.O-O-O Rh3 34.Qe2 Rxc3+ 35.Kb2 Rh3 36.d6 Nec6 37.Nxc6 Nxc6 38.e6 Qe5+ 39.Qxe5 Nxe5 40.d7+ Nxd7 0-1