Next week Round 3 of our Action Tournament continues. But don't worry, there will still be players around for casual chess and / or chess lessons or game reviews.
See you next Monday at 6pm - and tournament action will start by 7pm.
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| White to move and save himself ! |
Now for a treat from the "Never Ever Give Up!" department.
This game was called "The Swindle of the Century!"
Two American Grandmasters played each other in the Dubrovnik Tournament in 1950. It was Larry Evans with White and Sammy Reshevsky with Black.
As you can see, Black is one move away from delivering checkmate. White can stop checkmate with Rxg7+, but after Qxg7 White is down a rook and knight for a pawn and really is in no condition to continue the game.
But GM Evans found the Swindle of the Century to take the victory away from a stunned GM Reshevsky.
Can you find it?
Answer will be placed in the comment section .....by someone......eventually! Enjoy.
The thing to notice is that white has no moves if his queen and rook were off the board: a stalemate. So, that suggests some sort of perpetual-check-else-white-is-stalemated combination. With that reasoning, it's not hard to find 1. Qh8+! Kxh8 2. Rf8+ Kh7 3. Rh8+ Kg6 4. Rh6+ Kf7 5. Rf6+ Ke7. Now white has to be careful. If 6. Re6+?? expecting Kxe6, black wins with 6. .. Nxe6, and white has the unfortunate move 7. f4 allowing black to mate. However, white can continue checking along the 7th rank. 6. Rf7+! Ke6 7. Re7+! this allows white to avoid the sentry knight at f5, and black cannot escape the checks.
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