Dec `99 Update
Announcement
The e-pawn emperor’s next ‘monthly update’ will be posted on this Internet site towards the end of January 2000, and in the meantime he will, as always, reply personally to as many e-mail messages as possible which come to MrMo@ChessPublishing.com.
Right now, though, there’s a special bumper-size collection of fresh games and puzzles for you to enjoy over Christmas and the start of the new millennium. Let’s warm up for both big events with a string of Christmas Day digits in 2x5x2x5x2x5. And now that 1000 is on everyone’s mind, here comes a sneaky chess snack to finish this millennium...before it starts to bug you!
Mr Mo’s Christmas Puzzle
In this e4-e5 site, it’s fitting that we concentrate mainly on the e-file. So, imagine that the white and black kings are sitting on e6 and e8 respectively. Furthermore, Black has an invisible knight and pawn somewhere on the board. It’s a nightmare for White, because although he has three invisible pawns and it’s also his turn to move, he cannot prevent Black from delivering immediate checkmate in one move.
(i) Can you deduce the exact position on the board?
(ii) Imagine now that Black could wave a magic wand and change his knight to a bishop or a rook without changing the location of the piece. Would you choose a bishop, or would you prefer a rook?
The solution will appear in the January ‘update’ on this site.
Thanks
Special thanks to IM Jonathan Parker, Norman Stephenson, and Nico Verheyen, all of whom sent in very helpful annotations for some of the exciting new games which are in store for us.
Dedication
This third update (after the previous launch material) is dedicated to YOU, the readers, without whom my work here would have no purpose. I hope that you are very much enjoying all the features on this site to-date, and I will constantly endeavour to improve the material as we move together into the new millennium.
I’ll gift-wrap this dedication now on 16 December with ‘season’s greetings’ in 16 languages (where the letters are recognised by my home-computer), but to be honest I can only really speak the first four of the following languages!
Season’s greetings (English)
Xin nian kuai le (Mandarin)
Meilleurs voeux (French)
Prettige feestdagen (Dutch)
Frohe festtage
Felices fiestas
Boas festas
Migliori auguri
Iyi seneler
Manigong bagong taon
God jul och gott nytt år
God jul og godt nyttår
Glædelig jul og godt nytår
Selamat tahun baru
Boldog új évet
Hyvää joulua ja onnellista uutta vuotta
My computer will take all the blame for the ‘missing’ languages, but at least it’s helping me to produce work in our favourite international language: CHESS!
Mr Mo, Belgium 16 December 1999.
New Highlights
Lots of fresh mouth-watering goodies await us, including a quintuple dose of King’s Gambit excitement in games G4.7-G4.11. The Ruy Lopez features in an important new hat-trick of main games G13.6-G13.8, and the first of those three encounters shows our Hero of the Month in great form against Israel’s GM Lev Psakhis, rated 2581. The form continues as Black against the Italian Game in G12.5, and we get another trio of 0-1 results in G12.6 (the Two Knights Defence), G9.8 (the Scotch Game), and G2.3 (the Bishop’s Opening). However, there’s consolation for White in a stunning victory culminating with a queen sacrifice against the Hungarian Defence in G12.7. In general, the action-packed games are made even more irresistible by the presence of related challenging puzzles, which can also be seen in the section called "Puzzle Paradise". Further stimulating material appears in the Reflection Zone, but only subscribers can access that section and all the juicy annotated games too.
M.O. Moves
It’s a personal choice, but for me the three Most Outstanding Moves of the games within this month’s update material are the aforementioned stunning queen sacrifice 25 Qxh7+!! in game G12.7, and the temporary piece-sacrifices on the f4-square by super-GM Alexei Fedorov in a double demolition job using his favourite King’s Gambit in G4.7 & G4.8
Rewind Reward
The key idea here is that (although in general we focus on recent happenings) it still pays off to study some memorable older material. For example, nowadays I am still full of admiration for the beautiful positional play exhibited in game G2.3 by Francois-Andre Danican Philidor (7.9.1726-31.8.1795). It’s a masterpiece by the great 18th-century French musical composer and chess genius, whose achievement is heightened all the more by the fact that the said game from 1783 was played in a simultaneous blindfold exhibition!!
Time-warping forward 216 years to a very recent open-air summer ‘simul’ by IM Marc Dutreeuw in the Belgian town of Veurne this year, we’ll see in game G9.8 that one opponent won a piece after only 15 moves as Black in the Scotch Game. And yet White could have obtained a near-decisive advantage as early as move 8 by doing an 8-year ‘rewind reward’ to follow the 1991 super-GM clash V.Ivanchuk-B.Gulko at Reykjavik (see G9.8.2).
Motto of the Month
The previous launch and update material laid the foundations for further exciting adventures with 1 e4 e5 as our chosen starting point, and there still remains much for us to discover. By not letting ourselves become too bogged down in masses of theory, we can enjoy learning together and exploring with a free creative spirit. We’ll be carried forward easily by our love of chess and by the following good words of John Wesley (1703-91), who said "An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge". That’s a very fine inspirational motto for us near Christmas, and indeed at all times in life.
Reflection Zone
Recently I’ve had an influx of very interesting e-mail messages from a number of players, and some of the most thought-provoking examples follow now, along with my responses after having reflected upon the various points in the received messages.
Index of New Games & Part-games
G4.11.2 Kuznetsov,A-Bonsch-Osmolovsky,I
G9.8.1 Van den Abbeele,M-Motwani,P
New Alphabetical Index of Players
(bold indicates that the player had White)
New Alphabetical Index of Openings
Italian Game via the Scotch Gambit G12.5
King’s Gambit Accepted (by transposn) G4.7
King’s Gambit, Fischer Defence G4.8
King’s Gambit, Fischer Defence G4.9
King’s Gambit with 2...exf4 3 Nf3 g5 G4.10
King’s Gambit with 2...exf4 3 Nf3 Ne7 G4.11
Philidor’s Defence via 1...d6 G6.5
Ruy Lopez, Classical variation 3...Bc5 G13.6.1
Ruy Lopez, Classical variation & ...Nf6 G13.6
Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defence G13.7
Ruy Lopez, 3...a6 4 Bxc6 dxc6 G13.8
Scotch 4...Bc5 5 Be3 Qf6 6 c3 Nge7 G9.8