During an OTB league game v Frank O’Donnell played a few weeks ago,
his opponent, by accident or design (it matters not), placed a captured
Bishop behind the game clock.
Robin (white) looked at what was off the board, thought he was a
piece up and played a faulty combo.
Robin’s second mistake was telling me about it on the Chess Forum. 🙂
I popped round to Robin’s club and he very sportingly handed over
the score sheet. No greater sacrifice can any chess player offer than
to be ridiculed in the Blog for the benefit of others.
Here is a picture of Robin playing in a League match last night.
That is Robin conducting the White pieces.
Note his club use the small digital clocks, in the game in question
the club Robin was playing use the old fashioned large clock which can
hide two Rooks, two Knights and a pawn. (I've tried it.)
In the critical game Robin saw this off the board:
When infact on the board was this:
White is not a piece up.
Under the illusion he was a piece up Robin merrily played 17.Qxb7?
A lesson for everyone there.
Here is the full game.
Robin Johnson (1142) - Frank O'Donnell (1138) Edinburgh League 2011
Of course the big joke here is the grades. These two played way above 1100.
If you are expecting half-baked attacks and moves without little thought or reason
then you are about to be pleasantly surprised.
There is development, plans, combinations, no silly errors. (White’s off board
antics is something I’m sure many players have done and I doubt if the
Black player hid the captured piece of purpose, it just happened.)
Here is the shot for White I talking about.
Like 100’s of you out there I have read many chess books and I’ve picked
up the games maxims.
I love these old chess books. These Victorian writers have such a wonderful way
of putting things. Here the Reverent tells us to beware about playing on Maxims alone.
“Reasoning from remembered analogies carries one a good way:
But cases will constantly arise in which nothing but mother-wit will
serve your turn. Let it be mother-wit strengthened and developed by
exercise and study.”
So lads get your mother-wit in tune by studying, playing over as many
games as you can and by doing tactical puzzles.
The Rev also give us this game and adds a moral:
“Set traps, but take care that when they spring they don’t catch your own fingers.”
And he gives us this example.
So who has had their fingers caught on here?
Maite - DigitGus RHP 2003
dscp - jalcantara RHP 2004
UmbrageOfSnow - PopeBambi RHP 2005
JesusIsMyLord - Delmer RHP 2006
juan345 - pmanning12 RHP 2007
RoboRook - Carlitos RHP 2008
All these games went exactly the same way as the above game.
Carlitos was mated in November in 2008.
In October 2008 he was Black here v barselona
White instead of playing 7.gxh7+ and mate next move played 7.Qg5 and ended up losing.
If Carlitos had been mated in October then I doubt if he would have lost
the same way in November.
Not only that. because barselona missed the mate in two and actually lost
Carlitos progressed up the players table by 21 places and qualified to play Jupitorus.
They got talking and discovered they were both Take That fans and
started the campaign to get Take That to reform.
They should never have met. Barselona had a mate in two.
See what happens if you don’t strengthen your mother-wit and put away
these mates in two. Naffy crappy boy bands who thankfully split up, get
back together again and make my life a total misery. A total misery.
Morski and Velvet Ears have been posting their games in the forum. Thread 143520
(Soon people will stop posting for fear of getting Blogged.)
Game 8853090 was posted and this position was discussed.
White played 17.Qc3 and the game was drawn.
White, VelvetEars said he never saw this line. Oh mother-wit where were you?
If White had seen Espeli - Andersen Oslo 1952 (one of the those games
you cannot forget.) Then this idea would have trumped his thoughts.
We end the Chess bit of this blog with a Bolt from the Blue.
unclescooby - Joop506 RHP 2006
It is that time of year again. The Festive season.
For the past few years a lot of us have been changing our avatars 12 days before
the 25th of December (the 13th December) and change them back again 12 days
after Christmas Day (the 6th January).
Now I know some of you are not too fond of Christmas and some of you
are possibly of a different religion and don’t celebrate Christmas.
It’s just a harmless piece of fun amongst us chess players.
In this game we are all from the same family.
I'm going to be quite busy off the board over the next few weeks.
I'll try and do a Christmas bloggy thing. Can someone/anyone send me a
pcture of them playing chess in the snow ot better still...instead of a snowman
how about a snow chess piece.
redhotpawnblog@hotmail.co.uk
The thread for this Blog is Thread 143744
In Scotland there is just one grading official (Dougie Bryson)
working on one DB. It is very accurate.
He has not allowed it to be tainted with FIDE grades (You get a
FIDE provo grade of 2000 just for playing in a FIDE tournament.)
I imagine he curses these 'outsiders' who appear in Scotland with their
vastly overblown grades. They spread their false high grade around like
a pox when they are getting hammered by the 1600 lads.
It is hard for someone like Robin who just plays middle board chess
in Div ii or Div III and faces fellow 1100 - 1200 players for him
to climb up.
Unlike most people I post on the forum with the hope that my foolishness will make it onto a blog!
I know I used to have a SCA 1500 rating and on here I'm bouncing between 1700 and 1850. I'd probably be higher if I didn't try to play 100 games at once.
It also means that 2000+ rated East Europeans turn up in Scotland and get blown off the board by guys rated way lower than them 😀
Because it's Christmas.....stop being a Bah! Hum Bug.
(mental note: Look at Thabtos games for worst instructive lose.) 🙂