Kenilworth Kibitzer
A blog for members of the Kenilworth Chess Club.Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Ziggy and Chess
One of the comments reads....
Black to move and draw....(Solution in comments)
Labels: chess cartoon, puzzle, Ziggy
Friday, April 3, 2009
Short - Miles, British Ch 1984
White to move
I have been looking at Raymond Keene's Nigel Short: World Chess Challenger (Holt 1992) and came upon the diagram above from Short - Miles, British Championship 1984. This fascinating position was given as a quiz back in 2005 at Chessgames.com (follow the link above for the game and the "answer") but it is worth trying to figure out on your own -- and worth noting that Short did not see the winning move (or else rejected it because Black's most challenging reply just looks too good).
I think it's even worthwhile to take the hint that White's best is a Knight move that wins at least the Exchange and Black's most challenging response is a Knight move that threatens mate in two ways--but then White has a triple-exclam shot that wins anyway. An incredible series of moves once you see it.
I am really enjoying Short's games, by the way, and recommend them to you. I think too many people think of Short as a World Championship "also-ran," but he created some real masterpieces, including two games I annotated as part of my consideration of the Mad Dog response to the Pirc and his "immortal King walk" in Short - Timman, Tilburg 1991. And he continues to play some great chess: witness Short - Kasimdzhanov, Wijk aan Zee 2009.
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"For this move, Ziggy will be ok if he stays on a black square."
Of course, Newenglandah means Ziggy will be ok if he goes on a light square. On White's next move, the knight can move to a light square only attacking the dark squares. So Ziggy is safe on light! An important feature to remember when looking at this similar position below.