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Jan-25-07
 | | Phony Benoni: WHITE TO PLAY AND DRAW
(Composed by A. O. Herbstmann, 1929. Published in Chessboard Magic! by Irving Chernev, #104.)
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Keep your hands off that pawn; after 1.gxh8Q Qa7+ 2.Kd8 Qb8+ and Black eliminates the lady. You've got to set it up properly. <1.Bb3+ Kf5 2.Bc2+ Kg5 3.h4+ Kh5 4.gxh8Q Qa7+ 5.Kd8 Qb8+ 6.Ke7 Qxh8>
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So what did all that prove?
<7.Kf7!>
With a mate threat to which Black has only one effective reply, which however... <7...Nf4 8.Bg6+! Nxg6> ...leaves White stalemated. |
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Jan-26-07
| | Phony Benoni: WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN
(Composed by T. B. Gorgiev, 1929. Published in Chessboard Magic! by Irving Chernev, #105.)
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In theory, two pieces ahead is enough to win--but you have to be able to hold on to them! <1.Nd3+ Kc4 2.Bd5+ Kxd5 3.Nb4+ Kc4 4.Nxa2 Kb3>
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<5.Nc1+ Kb2 6.Nd2>
Saving the knight for now with the idea of 6...Kxc1 7.Ne4+. <6...Bd8+ 7.Kc6 Kxc1 8.Kd7!>
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Nowhere to run; nowhere to hide. |
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Jan-27-07
| | Phony Benoni: WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN
(Composed by P. J. Prokop, 1929. Published in Chessboard Magic! by Irving Chernev, #106.)
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Not as easy as it looks, as Black's pawns turn out to be a problem. <1.d7+ Kxd7 2.Rxe4 Bg6+!> Going for a stalemate position.
<3.Kxg6 cxd2 4.Rd4+ Ke8>
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Now 5.Rxd3 d1Q 6.Rxd1 is stalemate, and otherwise the pawn queens safely. <5.Be7!!>
Relieving the stalemate.
<5...d1Q 6.Bg5!>
And Black cannot stop mate without giving up the queen. Are you saying, "Wait a minute; I've seen this before"? You may have. This is an elaboration of a famous Reti study, published a little earlier: 
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<1.Bf5+ Kd6 2.Rd4+ Ke7 3.Re4+ Kd8 4.Bd7!! e1Q 5.Bb5!> Personally, I prefer Rati's setting for simplicity and for this trap: 1.Bc6+? Kd6 2.Rd4+ Ke7 3.Re4+ Kd6! forcing a draw, since 4.Rxe3 e1Q 5.Rxe1 is stalemate again. |
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Jan-28-07
| | Phony Benoni: WHITE TO PLAY AND DRAW
(Composed by A. A. Troitzky, 1910. Published in Chessboard Magic! by Irving Chernev, #107.)
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Showing the power of a centralized knight.
<1.gxh7 Bf5+ 2.Ne4! Bxh7 3.Kd2!> First point; 3...Bxe4 4.Kxd1 is a draw, as Black's bishop is the wrong color for the a-pawn. Since the knight on e4 guards f2, Black's knight has only one square. <3...Nb2 4.Kc3 Na4+ 5.Kb4!>
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And now, with 5...Nb6 getting zapped by 6.Nc5#, the Black knight has no choice but to limp back to d1 while the King galumps after it perpetually. |
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Jan-29-07
| | Phony Benoni: WHITE TO PLAY AND DRAW
(Composed by O. Duras, 1926. Published in Chessboard Magic! by Irving Chernev, #108.)
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Nimzovich once muttered something about keeping passed pawns under lock and key. Here, they return the favor. <1.Rb3 e2 2.Re3 Bh5 3.Kb4 f5 4.Kc3 f4>
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Hmm, not good. 5.Re5 f3 6.Kd2 f2, and the pawns laugh at White's pieces. We need to get back to another Nimzovich basic here: First, blockade! <5.Kd2!! fxe3+ 6.Ke1!>
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And draws! Eventually, White will force Black to capture or block the d-pawn. Black can only lift the resulting stalemate position by abandoning the e2 pawn, and his king will be too far away to protect the Pe3. |
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Jan-30-07
| | Phony Benoni: WHITE TO PLAY AND DRAW
(Composed by K. A. L. Kubbel, 1934. Published in Chessboard Magic! by Irving Chernev, #109.)
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It's not all bad for Black. He does get to decide who gets stalemated. <1.g7+ Kg8 2.Bd5 h1Q 3.f3>
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To stop 4.Be4 and 5.Bh7#, Black must resort to a problem manuever known as the Bristol, where one piece runs along a line as far as it can go to make room for another. <3...Ra1! 4.Be4 Qb1!>
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An effective defense, since taking the queen clearly loses for White. But... <5.Bf5!>
Leaving Black the choice of taking the bishop and stalemating White, or playing 5...Ra5 6.Bxb1 Rh5+ and stalemating himself. |
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Jan-31-07
| | Phony Benoni: WHITE TO PLAY AND DRAW
(Composed by T. B. Gorgiev, 1936. Published in Chessboard Magic! by Irving Chernev, #110.)
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And now for something completely different: an ending that's actually practical! <1.Kb5 Kd5 2.c4+ Kd6 3.c5+ Kd7 4.C6+ Kd6 5.c7 Rf8 6.Ka6 Kd7 7.Ka7 Kc6!>
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After 7...Kc8 8.Ka8, Black is not making progress. But what can White do now? 8.Ka6 allows 8...Ra8#, 8.b7 Kxc7 and the b-pawn can't go any further, and 8.c8Q+ is obviously futile. Or is it? <8.c8Q!+ Rxc8 9.b7 Rc7 10.Ka8! Rxb7> and stalemate. |
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| Jan-31-07 | | Calli: Hello, today is the first time that I looked at your game collection. It strikes that there must be a lot of games between the top US players of that period that are generally unavailable. Despite the trouble, I think it is worth it and thank you for your efforts. Perhaps the Reshevsky volume will have his games vs Kupchik, Reinfeld and Horowitz. |
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Jan-31-07
| | Phony Benoni: And thnnks again for all your help.
We do have Reshevsky's game with Horowitz, but are missing the one against Martin. In fact, I haven't found a single one of Martin's games so far. |
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Feb-01-07
| | Phony Benoni: WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN
(Composed by B. Horwitz, 1872. Published in Chessboard Magic! by Irving Chernev, #111.)
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Today's GOTD (Prins vs L Day, 1968), features White's king being hunted down and eventually mated by castling. The king takes a long walk here as well, but the outcome is happier. <1.c3+ Kc5 2.Na4+ Kb5 3.c4+ Ka6 4.Bc6>
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And now the plan is simple. White just trundles his king around to c8 via the light squares, and plays Bb7# somewhere in the neighborhood of the fifty-move rule. Black cannot stop this, nor can he play for stalemate by giving away his pawns because he's stuck with that stinking bishop. One small finesse: White has to use a route via f1 and g2, since going directby through e4 or f3 would allow ...h1Q+. This is all very clear, but I do have one small question. Obviously, the bishop had to move off h1; otherwise, the king would block it at some point while moving up the board and allow ...Kb7. But why c6? It looks like any square from f3 on up would work, and I certainly would have played 4.Ba8 for the humor effect. Or am I missing some subtle defense? |
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| Feb-01-07 | | Calli: Martin, BTW, is Robert E. Martin, Canadian champ in 1933. http://web.ncf.ca/bw998/canchess.ht... |
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Feb-01-07
| | Phony Benoni: Hard to find information. He did apparently win the Canadian Correspondence Championship in 1946 and may had an association with a Quebec chess periodical in the 1970s, but aside from that I'm drawing a blank. Maybe after scoring ½/14 at Syracuse, he tore up his scoresheets. |
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Feb-02-07
| | Phony Benoni: WHITE TO PLAY AND DRAW
(Composed by V. and M. Platov, 1909. Published in Chessboard Magic! by Irving Chernev, #112.)
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An inspiring tale, in which the bishops do not hesitate to give their lives for the sake of the pawn. <1.Bf4 Nxf4>
Forced, since the bishop denied the rook access to the critical c7 square. <2.e7 Rc7 3.Bc6+! Kg4 4.Bd7! Rxd7>
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And now you see the point, don't you?
<5.Kxh6! Rxe7>
Stalemate. |
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Feb-03-07
| | Phony Benoni: WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN
(Composed by V. A. Korolikov and Ap. P. Doliukanov, 1937. Published in Chessboard Magic! by Irving Chernev, #113.)
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In an epulatte mate, the king's diagonal flights are blocked by his own pieces. This one, believe it or not, ends in an unusual double epulatte mate. <1.Ne5+ Ke6 2.Rb6 Kxe5 3.e3 Nf5 4.Rxc6 Nd5>
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Black is down two exchanges, but threatens both 5...Nxh4 and 5...Nb4+. However, if you read the introduction, you'll realize that the knights are in position for an epaulatte mate if the king goes to e4. But how can White cover d3 and f3? <5.f4+! exf3 6.d4+! cxd3> Ah, there we are!
<7.Re4+! Kxe4 8.Re6#!>
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Feb-04-07
| | Phony Benoni: WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN
(Composed by V. A. Korolikov, 1940. Published in Chessboard Magic! by Irving Chernev, #114.)
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There's a school of thought that the best way of playing blitz chess is just to keep threatening mate until your opponent misses it. Here;s an impractical example. <1.Rg1 Qg4>
Forced to stop 2.Bd7#
<2.Bxg4 hxg4>
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OK, now watch this!
<3.Rc1 c3 4.Rd1 d3 5.Re1 e3 6.Rf1 f3 7.Rg1 g3 8.Rh1 h3>
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Reminds me of a row of dominoes toppling. And speaking of toppling: <9.Rxh3>
And 10.Rh4# inevitably follows.
This is one to be enjoyed, not analyzed. However, I should point out that White never wants to capture the rook on a3, as that allows Black to escape the mating net. Also, after 1...Qg4, White can't try for mate with 2.Rxg4 (hoping for 2...hxg4 3.Bxg4 and 4.Bd7#) since Black replies 2...Ra2 3.Rg2 Rxb2!, and the pawns will overwhelm White's pieces. |
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Feb-05-07
| | Phony Benoni: WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN
(Composed by M. S. Libiurkin, 1938. Published in Chessboard Magic! by Irving Chernev, #115.)
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Good Knight!
<1.d8N!>
After 1.d8Q cxd4, White has no effective counter to 2...d3, leaving Black stalemated. <1...cxd4 2.Nf7 d3 3.Nh6! gxh6 4.g7 h5>
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Once again, 5.g8Q h4 and Black gets his stalemate.
<5.g8N! h4 6.Nf6!>
I think you get the idea. But how is White going to win this? <6...exf6 7.e7 f5 8.e8N f4 9.Nd6 cxd6 10.c7 d5 11.c8N d4 12.Nb6 axb6 13.a7 b5 14.a8N>
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And now it's just a question of whether Black runs out of pawn moves before the White knight gets to f2. <14...b4 15.Nb6 b3+ 16.Ka3 b2 17.Nc4 b1Q 18.Rxb1 d1Q 19.Rxd1 d2>
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Still not easy! 20.Nd6 d3 is too slow, as is 20.Ra1 d1Q 21.Rxd1 d3. <20.Nb2! d3 21.Ra1 d1Q 22.Nxd1!> At last the Black knight can move, but White follows up with 23.Nf2, double check and mate. Whew! |
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Feb-06-07
| | Phony Benoni: WHITE TO PLAY AND DRAW
(Composed by E. N. Somov-Nasimovitsch, 1933. Published in Chessboard Magic! by Irving Chernev, #116.)
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White's a queen down, but he does have some pawns. Boy, does he ever have some pawns! <1.Kc4>
Threatening 2.cxb3#. If Black moves the bishop northeast then 2.Bb4 followed by mate, so it's got to go southeast. <1...Be1 2.Ne8>
Now the threat is 3.cxb3+ and 4.Bd8#, to which there is only one surprising but effetive defense. <2...Qxg5!>
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Not a bad little idea. 3.Bxg5 relieves the mate threat, and Black wins with 3...bxc2 4.Bxf4 g2 forcing a new queen. <3.Nf6! Qxf6!>
Same idea as before.
<4.Bb4!>
Back to the threat of 5.cxb3#.
<4...Bxb4 5.cxb3+ Ka5 6.axb4+ Kb6>
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Chernev puts it well here: "Quadruple pawns have their uses!" |
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Feb-06-07
| | Phony Benoni: Whoops. Here's the final dragram from #115 on February 5:
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The given solution is 20.Nb2 d3 21.Ra1 d1Q 22.Nxd1 and 23.Nf2#. Of course, White can save a move with the simple 20.Nxd2 d3 21.Ne4 d2 22.Nf2#. I think I recall reading somewhere that this study had been cooked and revised, but I don't have the details to hand. This is one obvious problem with the original. |
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Feb-07-07
| | Phony Benoni: WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN
(Composed by M. S. Libiurkin, 1933. Published in Chessboard Magic! by Irving Chernev, #117.)
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In which White has to reincarnate half of his army to deal with an extremely persistent bishop. <1.Ne4+ Kd3 2.Nc5+ Kc3 3.Nb3 Be5> Threatening 4...Kd2# or 4...Kc4# (it's weird writing such moves!). White's only defense is to block the a1-h8 diagonal or drive the bishop off it, but that's not as easy as you might think. <4.f4 Bg7>
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<5.e8N! Bh8 6.f5 Be5> Else 7.f6 blocks the bishop.
<7.Bh2! Bxh2 8.b7 Be5> Here we go again!
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<9.b8B!>
Not 9.b8Q Kc4+ 10.Qxe5 c1Q+ 11.Nxc1, stalemate!
<9...Bxb8 10.Nc7 Bxc7 11.e7 Be5> Now cut that out!
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<12.e8R!>
12.e8Q leads to stalemate as before.
<12...Bf6 13.Re6 Bg7 14.f6> And, finally, White wins.
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Feb-08-07
| | Phony Benoni: WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN
(Composed by I. Erochin, 1928. Published in Chessboard Magic! by Irving Chernev, #118.)
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A common rule of thumb says that Q+N are generally a more effective attacking force than Q+B. This is a case in point. <1.Nc2+ Ka4 2.Qg4+ Kb5 3.Nd4+>
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So far, alternatives for Black got quickly mated; now, forks and discovered attacks begin to pop up. Black has only one move to avoid immediate disaster. <3...Kb6 4.Qg6+ Kb7 5.Qe4+>
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Black must be going crazy about now. 5...Kb6 doesn't get forked at once, but 6.Qb1+ will then force him to a vulnerable square. <5...Kc8 6.Qa8+ Kd7> Avoiding one last fork, but now the g7-pawn justifies its existence. <7.Qc6+ Ke7 8.Qe6#> |
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Feb-09-07
| | Phony Benoni: WHITE TO PLAY AND DRAW
(Composed by V. and M. Platov, 1905. Published in Chessboard Magic! by Irving Chernev, #119.)
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"Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?"
<1.f4>
Threatening 2.Be1#, with 1...Qe4 2.Bd8# in reserve.
<1...Bxh3 2.Be1+ Kg4 3.Bxh3+ Kxf4>
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<4.Bd2+>
Black must stick to the dark squares, and there's no shelter except up the board. <4...Ke5 5.Bc3+ Kd6 6.Bb4+ Kc7 7.Ba5+ Kb8>
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And now, Murder in the Cathedral of the Long Diagonal. <8.Bg2!>
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Feb-10-07
| | Phony Benoni: WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN
(Composed by H. Rinck, 1906 Published in Chessboard Magic! by Irving Chernev, #120.)
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You know how queen and pawn endings usually work. One player checks aimlessly for 49 moves and then pushes a pawn, whereupon the other player starts checking. This one is a bit different. <1.Qb1>
Threatening 2.Qb5+ Kd4 3.Qd5#. Black has only one defense. <1...Kd4 2.Qb3! Qxd4+ 3.Kd6>
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Behold the power of the centralized Black queen: she has a large choice of losing moves! She can't stay put, as White threatens 4.Qc3#. She has to control the long diagonal to stop 4.Qd5#. If she tries moving southeast to g2 or h1, White drops her with 4.Qc3+ Ke4 5.Qc6+. That leaves just one move. <3...Qa8 4.Qe3+ Kc4 5.Qc3+ Kb5 6.Qb3+ Ka6 7.Qa4+ Kb7 8.Qb5+ Ka7>
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And now, with 44 checks still in the queue, White chooses instead to clinch the win at once. <9.Kc7!>
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Feb-11-07
| | Phony Benoni: WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN
(Composed by V. A. Korolikov, 1929. Published in Chessboard Magic! by Irving Chernev, #121.)
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A somewhat crazier postiion than yesterday's! And the solution is appropriately weird. The plot: Black has two threat of mate with 1...f1Q and 1...Bf3. Despite his huge current and potential material advantage White has to sacrifice wildly to stop these threats, while Black sacrifices his forces trying to get a stalemate. <1.Rd2+ Kc1>
Not 1...Kxd2 2.Qh6+.
<2.Rd1+ Kxd1 3.Ba4+ b3 4.Bxb3+ Ke1 5.Bb4+ Nc3 6.Bxc3+ Kf1>
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Black still threatens 7...Bf3#, and 7.Bd5 Bf3+ 8.Bxf3 is stalemate. All that's left is pinning the bishop. <7.Bc4! Bxc4 8.Qc5 Bd3 9.Qb5! Bxb5>
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Black is still threatening mate--but watch this!
<10.b8N! Bd3 11.a8B!! Be2 12.f8R!!!>
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Three consecutive underpromotions to three different pieces! And note that the nonqueenings were necessary: Black gets his stalemate after 11.a8Q Be4+ or 12.f8Q Bf3+. |
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Feb-12-07
| | Phony Benoni: WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN
(Composed by A. O. Herbstmann, 1935. Published in Chessboard Magic! by Irving Chernev, #122.)
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Take my queen, please!
<1.Qe1+ Kc2>
Naturally, 1...Kxe1 allows 2.Nxd3+ forking king and queen. And there you have the whole idea of the study. <2.Qc1+ Kb3 3.Qb2+ Kc4 4.Qb4+ Kd5 5.Qd6+> And now we go counter-clockwise for a while.
<5...Kc4 6.Qc5+ Kb3 7.Qb4+ Kc2 8.Qb2+> And, at last, Black is forced to end his agony and take the queen. |
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| Feb-13-07 | | sucaba: Good ♘,
the solution of study Nr 115 (Libiurkin) displays a nice series of promotions into ♘s.
White can also win trivially with 1. d8♕.
For example 1. _ cxd4 2. ♕d5 d3 3. ♖xd2 ♘e2 4. ♖d1+ ♘g1 5. f4 d2 6. ♖xd2 ♘e2 7. ♖xe2 ♔g1 8. ♕d1#.
More persevering is 1. _ c4 2. ♕d5 c3 3. f4 c2 4. ♖xd2 ♘e2 5. ♖xc2 ♔g1 6. ♖xe2 h1♕ 7. ♕f3, and White can push the f- or h-♙. |
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