Chess thread

[Tal]

Met an old acquaintance of yours last week at the Cromwell Mint in South Ken, Julian Hodgson, also a former Chess player, now a Poker player/teacher..

He mentioned he got into poker through some other chess players that picked up the game, so I had to ask if he knew you  

Mentioned your thread, said he'll come on and say hello..

Ha!

Now, this is interesting...

Julian won the British champs back to back, twice. There's a great story of his victory in the one at Millfield School, where he brought his own leather chair into one of the games (I think after some issues with the ones provided) and that became one of the lasting lagacies of the event. Fearless attacking player and, as is the way with chess fashion, his use of the Tromp ended up becoming a fad across the British chess scene up and down the country.

As regular readers will know, I have a chess namesake. He's a grandmaster and has a similar (but better!) aggressive playing style. He's about four years older than me and has a blog (Ginger GM). He also plays a bit of poker I think down Surrey way (No Hendonmob Profile tho... ) That might be who he thinks of when you mention my name.

However, I have spoken to him a few times down the years in passing and he did do some coaching at our school in Birmingham in around 2001/2. I did play the circuits back then, too, albeit further down the food chain. It isn't beyond the realms of possibility that he remembers me.

If he does log in and say hello, I'd be delighted to get a GM on board, remember me or not.

[Rexas]

I've been lurking in this thread for a little while, ever since Tal pointed me over to it from another thread. Before I go to bed, I'd like to introduce myself to all you chess lovers

I first started playing chess when I was pretty young, so much so that I can't remember how old. Somewhere between 6 and 8, I think. My Grandfather used to play county stuff back when he was younger in Essex, had played with a few grandmasters, and was definitely an enthusiast. He taught me, and it became a pretty regular thing. I started playing a little more often with my dad, and very rarely my mum (mostly played draughts with her though!). I competed at school during "wet play time" (ikr) and I can't remember ever losing a game. I played the Scouts chess championships in my local area three times, won it once and came second once. It never even occurred to me to look at properly competitive chess, which I do kinda regret now. Anyway, time moved on, I grew further apart from my grandfather, and we haven't played for many years. I played a few times in senior school, but didn't get on particularly well with the teacher who ran it, and I had a lot of other things that I was spending my time with, so chess took a back seat and eventually faded out of my life all together.

A few years ago, when I had just left my job and was starting out trying to make some headway in the poker world, I was sat at a table in my local pub one afternoon when someone mentioned that every pub used to have a chess board available for use. One of the players then decided to tell everyone how good he was, in much the same way he talked about poker. One of those guys that knew all the words, but had no idea what they meant. I got a little tired of listening too him telling everyone how good he was, when I suspected he wasn't, so I challenged him to a game using the chess board the landlord had just bought out. Stuck a tenner on the table, and off we went. It took me a while to get back in to it, and obviously I would get crushed by anyone who spent time learning the game, but I managed to string together some sort of opening, took out both his knights very early on, and didn't really have any trouble the whole way through. Did take me a pretty long time to make every move though :p I had a great time taking him down a peg, and for a moment I did regret not sticking with the game. Didn't last very long, as noone really wanted to play seriously and I just didn't set aside the time to get back into it.

So, why bring this up now? Well, today I had another bad day in a long line of bad days at the felt. As I was signing off, I flicked through my phone and found that I had a free chess app sitting there that I didn't even know I had. I figured, as a way of de-stressing, I'd have a little look. Suffice it to say, I think I'll be playing again tomorrow!

[Tal]

Thank you, Rexas

Never too late to start playing competitively. Wherever you live, there will be a local club, playing in a local league. You'd probably have one or two games a month, between September and April on a weekday night.

All levels are catered for in these leagues and you'd get to play in a team. Or you could just have fun once in a while on a club night.

http://www.englishchess.org.uk/clubs-and-associations-ii/clubs/

[Tal]

http://en.chessbase.com/post/joys-of-chess-selfmate-activists

However daft the move was that lost you your last game, remember it happens to much better players, too.

Former world title challenger, Nigel Short, included.

[Tal]

Some technique required on this one:



White to play and win.

Compiler is @LeftDarkling (Alexander George).

We are looking for a sequence of moves that stop Black from queening his pawns. If he gets there, we are drawing at best, so see if you can get sneaky and wriggle into a winning position.

[Honeybadger]

Some technique required on this one:



White to play and win.

Compiler is @LeftDarkling (Alexander George).

We are looking for a sequence of moves that stop Black from queening his pawns. If he gets there, we are drawing at best, so see if you can get sneaky and wriggle into a winning position.

Spent ages on this one... can't work it out. I presume you need to manoeuvre the Queen round to the other side with checks and then either weave some sort of mating net, or force the black king away from the pawns. But I can't seem to do it.

[Tal]

If it helps, it was tweeted to Lev Aronian, who immediately tweeted a response, to be told he'd got it wrong

You're absolutely on the right lines. Just think about the fact you've got to get both the queen and the king defending the queening square and then Black can't promote his pawn.

[Honeybadger]

If it helps, it was tweeted to Lev Aronian, who immediately tweeted a response, to be told he'd got it wrong

You're absolutely on the right lines. Just think about the fact you've got to get both the queen and the king defending the queening square and then Black can't promote his pawn.

Yeah I was playing around with that. Presumably Black is going to move his King between c1 and c2 (e.g. 1 Qe2 Kc1 2 Qe3 Kc2). Gotta force him to d1 at a point where the White Q can go to a4 with check, then when Black king goes c1, white plays Ke2. Don't think Black has a stalemate threat then, so it should win for white - but can't seem to work out how to arrange that position.

[McGlashan]

Qa4+ allows the follow up move Ke2 hitting D1 with 2 pieces which will be game over.  The problem is getting there in the first place...

[Tal]

Exactly. I will give you a clue if you want it?

[Honeybadger]

Exactly. I will give you a clue if you want it?

Not yet ffs! Gimme a chance to get it myself. I was never very good at chess, but I used to be good at these things...

[Tal]

Exactly. I will give you a clue if you want it?

Not yet ffs! Gimme a chance to get it myself. I was never very good at chess, but I used to be good at these things...

No problem. I'll post a clue at the end of the week then.

[KarmaDope]

What about 1. Qe2 Kc1 2. Qe1 ?

If Black goes Kc2 then go for Qa1 and if he goes Kb2 then go 3. Ke2 and work from there?

Bear in mind I am a complete noob and probably missing something...

[Tal]

What about 1. Qe2 Kc1 2. Qe1 ?

If Black goes Kc2 then go for Qa1 and if he goes Kb2 then go 3. Ke2 and work from there?

Bear in mind I am a complete noob and probably missing something...

Interesting idea. I like your thinking.

After 1.Qe2, black has to move his king, but Qe1 will get you into trouble because the black pawn can take it. Whoops!

If you do the same thing on the F-file instead, the problem is Qa1 isn't a check, so black can then queen the pawn and you won't be able to win, because if you check on a4, the king can still go to d2 and defend his own queen.

The more you play around with it, the more elegant the puzzle is. What makes this so good is that it is perfectly possible to get a position like this and that you are using tricks that do come up in games.

[McGlashan]

What about 1. Qe2 Kc1 2. Qe1 ?

If Black goes Kc2 then go for Qa1 and if he goes Kb2 then go 3. Ke2 and work from there?

Bear in mind I am a complete noob and probably missing something...

That queen move doesnt work as it allows pawn to reach the first rank, upon promotion

Most of us must feel like noobs when Tal posts these tough puzzles. On more than one occasion I incorrectly assumed I'd solved it.