Welcome back to Jammo’s chess puzzles for 2012. I’ve collected quite a few interesting positions to show you over the next few weeks. It’s certainly been a great Summer of chess with the Australian Championships in Geelong, the Australian Junior Championships in Melbourne and then the Queenstown Chess Classic in New Zealand.
I only attended the Junior, where I had to give a speech at the opening ceremony to give a bit of advice to our young players, but I avidly followed the other events on-line each day. The prize for the silliest play of the Summer goes to Max Illingworth against Yi Lui at the Australian Championships (see diagram). A close second is Max Illingworth (!) for his draw in NZ with GM Zhao Xue where Max went from R+B+4P v R+N+1P to R v R+N. Yes, he lost his B and 4 pawns for just one pawn! Not to be outdone he played on for 79 moves without a pawn move or capture before finally claiming a draw under the 50 move rule. Now that’s fighting spirit!
Anyway, in the diagram Max has White and his has played a nice combination to win a rook for a couple of pawns. Now 1.Qe1 would quickly bring about a comfortable victory. Instead Max played the worst move of the tournament which allowed his opponent to immediately turn the tables. What was Max’s blunder and his opponent’s devastating reply?
rn5R/pp2kpp1/4p1p1/3p4/1q3Pn1/3Bp3/PP2K1PP/2BQ3R w – - 4 9White to play a huge blunder and lose!
As noted in my blog last week, it was a big week of chess at Monash University from Saturday to Tuesday with the Vic. Youth Championships followed by the Interschool State Finals. I’ve finally learnt how to set a digital clock, but it was hard work – 4 days of non-stop walking around as a arbiter. The compensation was seeing some really good chess and every player came away with a trophy or a certificate. 7 year-old Yoni is pictured proudly displaying his trophy on the left.
