| Nov-30-11 | | Sho: Hyper modern opening from 1850? Where does this game fit into the evolution of chess? |
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Nov-30-11
 | | FSR: Click on Mohishunder and look at his biography. The "Indian Defenses" (King's, Queen's, Nimzo-, Bogo-, etc.) are all called that in homage to him. In Cochrane vs Mohishunder, 1855, he played the first known "Gruenfeld Defense," 67 years before Gruenfeld "introduced" it. |
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| Nov-30-11 | | Shams: <Sho> History records that he was also the first player to "screw in" his knights when he played them to strong squares. |
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Nov-30-11
| | FSR: <Sho> That last assertion is a sham by Shams. |
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| Nov-30-11 | | Shams: <FSR> It's documented on a page I'm looking at right now. Unfortunately, the URL string for the web page is too long to fit within the posting field. |
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Dec-01-11
| | FSR: Yeah, right. It would be <impossible> to tinyurl it. www.tinyurl.com |
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| Dec-01-11 | | selfmate: Don't know why Mohishunder should get all the credit. His compatriot Somacarana was equally strong and payed in a similar fashion Somacarana's profile:
Chessgames Home Page /perl/chessplayer?pid=118445 |
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Dec-01-11
| | FSR: I don't know who this Somocarana guy is. Never heard of him. I was wondering if that could somehow be a variant spelling of Mohishunder's name, but that would be a hell of a variation. I've read Philip W. Sergeant's "100 Years of British Chess" (1934), which seems to be quite comprehensive. He talks about Mohishunder, but doesn't mention Somocarana. |
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| Dec-01-11 | | Shams: <FSR> Apparently he played just shy of 200 games (extant), all against John Cochrane, losing exactly twice the number of games that he won. Here he is with a proto-Modern defense:
Cochrane vs Somacarana, 1855 |
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| Oct-22-12 | | ICE2012: <FSR> <Shams> These are actually different persons - Mahesh Chandra Banerjee (mentioned as Mohishunder - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohesc...) and possibly Soumya Charan Ghatak, mentioned as Somacarana. I am quite confident these are different persons as I come from the place, where the games were played, Calcutta and the names are quite different. And most likely the reason Cochrane may have called these Indian openings as opposed to naming them after an individual, I feel is although both the above may have been good exponents of the Indian openings and defenses and generally very strong players, they possibly did not invent the openings. I believe the fianchettos were there long before in Indian chess, although these players may have been the first to adapt into European chess setting. |
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| Oct-22-12 | | ICE2012: And of course, in the same context, the Gruenfeld Defense would most likely have been invented and played for the first time by Mohishunder in 1855 in the game mentioned by <FSR> above, as it has fianchetto but also European sytle pawn moves, before Gruenfeld reinvented it. (I assume he had not seen some manuscript of the 1855 game. :)) |
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| Apr-02-14 | | doanbay919: In the 25th move, why didnt Black Queen take White Bishop? May anyone explain for me? I am newbie :) |
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Apr-02-14
 | | OhioChessFan: <doanbay> For one thing, it was a pretty poor game overall by Black. More importantly, White had Qxd4+ and f4, where it would be hard for Black to avoid exchanging Queens, leaving him simply down 2 Pawns in a Rook and Pawn endgame. I imagine he hoped for some perpetual ideas or complications so long as the Queens stayed on the board. |
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Apr-02-14
 | | perfidious: <doanbay919> That is equally hopeless after 25....Qxg5 26.Qxd4+, as White is two pawns ahead. |
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| Mar-19-15 | | Ladyanavt: The white queen goes on a pawn feast. You almost root for her to eat a few more! |
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| Feb-25-16 | | JASAHA: Re Indian openings. Having lived in India for 14 years and played chess there, I've come to the position that Indian openings which fianchettoed Bishops are common there because, in some variants of the Indian game, players can start making any two moves. This includes fianchettoing a Bishop in one turn. Likewise both Knights could move out in the first turn. After that its strictly one move at a time and no 2 space advances for pawns except in the first turn. |
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Kibitzing
