9 move checkmate

[John McKenna]

[White "Some mates in 8, or less"] [Annotator "JM"] [PlyCount "15"] {Here are some actual games that ended in mate in 8 or less moves - I have no instance of a mate in 4 even as suggested in the quote ("... it was perfectly natural for Black to want to play 3...Nf6 after 1 e4 e5 2 Bc4 Nc6 3 Qh5") from above, but I did find the [b]Keres[/b] game mentioned above.} 1. e4 (1. f4 e5 2. g4 Qh4# {Sperber-Bender 1992 VLN Baden}) (1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bg5 Ne4 4. Bh4 c5 5. c3 Qb6 6. Qb3 Qh6 7. Qxd5 Qc1# { Ellinger-Lentrodt 1996 BL}) 1... e5 (1... f6 2. d4 g5 3. Qh5# { Klip-Bottema 1990 Dieren Op.}) (1... c6 { All these varaiations have the same theme.} 2. d4 (2. f4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Qe2 Ngf6 6. Nd6# {Fabian-Szep 1996 Balatonbereny B Op.}) (2. Nc3 d5 3. Nf3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Qe2 Bg4 6. g3 Nbd7 7. Nd6# { La Rota-Sarwer 1988 St. John Op. B}) 2... d5 3. Nc3 (3. Nd2 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Qe2 Ngf6 6. Nd6# {Felez-Obon 1994 Ibercaja Op.}) 3... dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Qe2 Ngf6 6. Nd6# {Drexel Volz1992 Mehlingen Op. & Reinecker-Vaut 1989 Bargteheide Op. & Nishimura-Marko 1982 Luzern Ol. & Kostjoerin-Lantsias 1966 Havana Ol. & [b]Keres[/b]-Arlamowski 1950 Zhavno-Zdroj}) 2. Nf3 (2. f4 exf4 3. e5 Qh4+ 4. Ke2 Bc5 5. d3 Qf2# {Sommer-Schmidt 1991 Triberg Rapid}) 2... Nc6 (2... Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nxf7 Kxf7 5. d4 Nxe4 6. Qh5+ Kg8 7. Qd5+ {1-0 Hess-Born 1990 Kirchheim Rapid } 7... Be6 $8 8. Qxe6#) 3. Bc4 (3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nge7 5. O-O b5 6. Bb3 Na5 7. Nxe5 d6 8. Bxf7# {Moura-Manso 1993 Port. Team Ch.}) (3. d4 exd4 4. Bc4 Be7 5. Nxd4 Nxd4 6. Qxd4 d6 7. Qxg7 Bf6 8. Qxf7# { Grau Carrera-Skerlikova 1994 EU U-10 Ch.}) 3... d6 4. Nc3 Bg4 5. h3 Bh5 6. Nxe5 Bxd1 7. Bxf7+ Ke7 8. Nd5# {Nasser-Mbye 1986 Dubai Ol.} *

[Graham Borrowdale]

Here is a very thematic helpmate my opponent constructed in a congress game when I was a junior:


e4 c5 Nf3 Nc6 d4 cxd4 Nxd4 Nxd4 Qxd4 e6 Nc3 Nf6 e5 Ng8 Ne4 Ne7 Nd6

[Andrew Camp]

My quickest OTB win.

[Event "British Championships YATES"] [Site "?"] [Date "2010.08.01"] [Round "5"] [White "Camp, Andrew R."] [Black "Brace, Louise"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B21"] [WhiteElo "84"] [BlackElo "100"] [PlyCount "27"] 1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 3. c3 dxc3 4. Nxc3 Nc6 5. Nf3 e6 6. Bc4 Bc5 7. O-O Nge7 8. Bf4 a6 9. Bd3 d5 10. e5 O-O 11. Bxh7+ Kxh7 12. Ng5+ Kg8 13. Qh5 f6 14. Qh7# 1-0

[John McKenna]

Ian Kingston >... a relatively obscure trap in the KG - 1.e4 e5 2.f4 ef 3.Nf3 Be7 4.Bc4 Bh4+ 5.Kf1 d5 6.Bd5 Nf6 7.Nh4 Nd5 8.Nf3?? Ne3... <
Yes, relatively obscure but not only in the KG - 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nd2 e5 3.de Ng4 4.h3?? Ne3! 0-1 Gibaut-Lazard 1924 Paris Ch.

[Bobjones]

My quickest graded game lasted just five moves. I was Black (thank goodness!)
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. d5 Bc5 4. Bg5 Ne4 5. Bxd8 ?? Bxf2mate

[Matt Mackenzie]

Another Budapest cheapo!

John McKenna - it is now generally accepted that Gibaud-Lazard never really happened (at least not in the four move version)

[John McKenna]

My apologies to the late Mr. Gibaud who it seems protested to the BCM in 1937 that it was not him playing white. There are then a number of other discrepancies to do with the game but it is possble that sometime, somewhere a similar sequence of moves was played by Mr. Lazard as black. Thanks for pointing it out.

[Stewart Reuben]

Peter Williams. did you realise you were saccing a pawn with 1 c4 e6 2 g3 d5 3 Bg2 c6 4 b3 as 4...dxc4 5 bxc4 Qd4 forks rook and pawn?

My shortest win as a schoolboy:
1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nc3 Nd7? 4 cxd5 cxd5 5 Nxd5 e5 6 dxe5 Qg5??? 7 Bxg5 Nxe5 (perhaps the best move?) 8 Nc7 mate.
I had to travel an hour there and back for that nonsense, although the mate is original. For some reason it is not to be found in Chessbase.

RF Combe v W Hazenfuss Folkestone Olympiad 1933
1 d4 c5 2 c4 cxd4 3 Nf3 e5 4 Nxe5? Qa5ch
Combe, a future British Champion, commented something like, 'Nxe5 was positionally sound but tactically weak'. It is quite likely this is his best remembered game.

[Kevin Thurlow]

In fairness to Combe, I believe he had been playing a very lengthy adjournment from the previous round and did not want to play. Apparently, he showed the game to other people afterwards, which shows an impressive attitude.

From Gambit offers possibilities...

1.f4 e5, 2.fxe5 d6, 3.exd6 Bxd6, 4.b3 (or 4.Nc3 etc) 4....Qh4+, 5.g3 Q(or B)xg3+

[Laurie Roberts]

There's this one, which all Dragon players should know, but some don't.


1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.f4 Bg7 7.e5 dxe5 8.fxe5 Ng4 9.Bb5+ Kf8 10.Ne6+ 11.Qxd8+ 1-0

The error, as demonstrated by Jon Mestel back in the seventies, is not 6 .. Bg7 as some lazy writers used to tell us, but 7 .. dxe5, where the "only move" is 7 .. Nh5. A point being that 8 g4 can be met by 8 .. Nxf4.

Is 7..dxe5 OK providing black plays 9..Nc6 though? This was played in Pilnik Kashdan and although white won I'm not sure it was forced?

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. f4 Bg7 7. e5 dxe5 8. fxe5 Ng4 9. Bb5+ Nc6 10. Nxc6 Qxd1+ 11. Nxd1 a6 12. Ba4 Bd7 13. h3 Nh6 14. Nxe7 Bxa4 15. Nd5 Rd8 16. c4 Nf5 17. Bg5 Rd7 18. N1c3 Bc6 19. O-O-O h5 20. Nc7+ Kf8 21. Rxd7 Bxd7 22. Rd1 Bxe5 23. Rxd7 h4 24. Ne4 Nd4 25. Rd8+ Kg7 26. Ne8+ Kh7 27. N4f6+ Bxf6 28. Nxf6+ 1-0

[Roger de Coverly]

Is 7..dxe5 OK providing black plays 9..Nc6 though? This was played in Pilnik Kashdan and although white won I'm not sure it was forced?

You may be right, that it's just a tactical tightrope to achieve a position where Black is a bit worse. Much the same can apply to the Mestel line as well. The Levenfish with f4 doesn't have a good reputation these days, there was a comment by Short that if you played the Grand Prix attack without d3, you may have a chance to transpose into a Dragon. The problem being that it would be the Levenfish line.

[JustinHorton]

So how are people doing those dinky little play-throughs? I could show you the five-move checkmate I once managed on the internet.

[Stewart Reuben]

Somewhat turning aside. If you programmed 2 computers to play random legal moves, does Black have an advantage because some of the time Black would give mate in 2 moves?

[Neill Cooper]

From Gambit offers possibilities...

If my memory is correct
1.f4 e5, 2.fxe5 d6, 3.exd6 Bxd6, 4.Nf3 g5, 5.h3 Bg3#
was played in the 1970s a Berks league match and reported by David Blackman in the Reading Mercury. Black was David Tucker.

[Angus French]

So how are people doing those dinky little play-throughs? I could show you the five-move checkmate I once managed on the internet.

Justin, all you need do is paste a game in PGN format and surround it by opening and closing pgn tags - <pgn>/</pgn> but with '[' and ']' in place of '<' and '>'.
This very neat functionality was provided by Paolo Casaschi - there's some information here and I think something was written earlier though I've not found it.
Try creating a post and quoting from a previous post which includes a play-through game - then you'll see what's what.