LCCC Closed Tonight Due to Weather - But Some Chess Analysis

The Hartland Senior Center is closed because the Hartland Schools are closed - due to poor road conditions.

So we will move our League Night to next week - unless the weather says otherwise again.

But to keep you chess company until the Club meets again, take a look at this:

Now let us take a look at this position:

Black plays the correct, but very hard to see move of

17. …….             Be6!

(-1.7) If Black plays any other move, White will hold the advantage - and one ranging from small to getting bigger.

For instance, with 17. …...Nb5, White’s advantage is (+.3) of a pawn.

With 17. …..Bxf3, White’s advantage is (+.4).

With 17. …..Nb1, White’s advantage grows to (+.6). You get the idea. The move played by Black was the best by at least 2 pawns - one positionally and one materially!

The game could, would or should have continued this way:

18. Qxc3               Qxc5

19. dxc5               Bxc3

20. Bxe6               Rxe6

21. g3                   Bb4

22. Rd7                 Bxc5

23. Rxb7               Rae8

And Black maintains a small positional advantage, but a possible draw result still looms.

But that is not what happened in this case. The continuation just shown is the work of my Igor3000 chess program. It is another example of computers ruining everything for the chess romantic.

The position shown was from a game – romantically dubbed -  “The Game of the Century.”

Donald Byrne played the White pieces and Bobby Fischer played Black.

Analysts at the time did not have computers and viewed White’s reply 18. Bxb6 as practically forced. 

But today’s computers quickly give it a “red” error notation and score that this move drives Black’s advantage up to an insurmountable (-6.3).

So the “Game of the Century” actually was nothing more than a panic blunder by a player that should have known better. But the ‘shock’ of the move Fischer made did Mr. Byrne in.

So, the Game of the Century closed like this:

18. Bxb6??            Bxc4+

19. Kg1                 Ne2+

20. Kf1                  Nxd4+

21. Kg1                 Ne2+

22. Kf1                  Nc3+

23. Kg1                 axb6+

24. Qg4                 Ra4

25. Qxb6               Nxd1

     Resigns

Several of the ‘classic’ games are getting scrutinized by computers and the machines are finding that many a great and picturesque wins, are really a by-product of less than proper defense.

Sometimes progress doesn’t make us happier.