We will be meeting again this coming Monday night, Sept. 12, at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Brighton at the Green Oak Shopping Mall.
Stop on by for some friendly chess games and
conversation. We start at 4pm and go until 9pm usually.
Your humble scribe hopes to have reports of how our members
faired in the recent Michigan Open tournament. Please bring your games
and your stories to me this Monday night please.
The Galloping Knights
No chess piece is more troublesome for the chess
beginner to learn and manage than the knight. It’s strange hoppings from one
color to the other and vise-versa, and adding to that, has the ability to leap
over friend and foe alike, makes the knight difficult to learn, let alone
master.
But knights in the hands of the masters can do some sparkling dancing.
Your humble scribe refrains from reviewing games because you
can find volumes of that stuff elsewhere, and with much better analysis and
banter.
But this caught my attention (see diagram). It was a game from a
tournament in 1926 between IM Karl Gilg with White, who takes on GM Aron
Nimzowitsch with the Black pieces. We pick it up in mid-game for your
enjoyment:
Black has just played 19. …..g5! which prevents White
from playing Nf4.
20. Ng1? Ne4
White needed to play Kg1 with equality.
Meanwhile, Black played "hope chess" with the second-best move hoping to
be able to play the pretty mate combination of 21. ……Qxh2+, 23. Nxh2, Nxg3
mate!
The best is the stunning 20. …..Nf2+ 21. Qxf2, Ng4 22. Qxf8+, Rxf8 23. Nh3, Qf7 24. Re2, Re8 25. Nxg5, hg and Black is up 4 pawns!
21. Nh3 Ngf6
22. Bxe4? Nxe4
White blunders here under the panic of Black’s dominating
knights compared to his uncoordinated ones. Correct was 22. g4 to allow the move 23. Re3 to defend the knight
on h3.
23. Ng1? Nf2+
As we soon see, White needed to play 23. Qd3 which
would have allowed the return capture of a knight after 23. ……Qxh3 with 24.
Rxe4. But instead, the f3 square is clear for the Black Queen to invade.
24. Kg2 Bh3+
25. Nxh3 Qf3+
26. Kg1 Qh1 mate
