English Chess Forum

benedgell wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 15, 2019 10:33 am

I'm sure I read somewhere someone once played 1. Ng3 by mistake in 1st round of a rapidplay, and as it was an illegal move....

Stewart Reuben wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 15, 2019 2:02 pm

Nick
Part of my chess lore is that the shortest game between masters went 1 d4 Nf6 2 Nd2 e5 3 de Ng4 4 h3?? Ne3 0-1

IM Al Howitz had this story. They were playing for money. Black had the right to pay Al to make a move, whih, of course, he could reject.
Black paid for 4 h3 then Ne3. Al said he went on to win.

Of course that "game" was originally cited as Gibaud v Lazard and supposedly played in the 1920s.

(and according to some event more extravagant accounts, during a championship for the Parisian or even French title)

In reality, it is virtually certain that it is fictitious. Edward Winter has written one of his feature articles about it.

Paul Cooksey wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 15, 2019 1:47 pm

...So the mates are better IMO.

Ok, so this was a mate in 9 moves, at the Berks & Bucks congress many years ago:

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nxd4 5 Qxd4 e6 6 Nc3 Nf6 7 e5 Ng8 8 Ne4 Ne7 9 Nd6 mate

Nick Ivell >Which brings me to the issue of resigning. When is it plain bad etiquette to play on?<

I don't know about that. It does get a bit boring when somebody plays on.

For GMs where there are spectators, it is different.
The late Bent Larsen said, 'You should never resign until everybody in the audience understands why.'
That conjures up the image of Bent going to the spectators asking, 'You do understand why i'm resigning?'

At Hastings Tony Miles came away after the game and said, 'I cannot understand why he resigned then. It was the best position he had had all game'. I think GM Ivan Farago was the opponent.

My shortest win was mate in 8, in 1979:

[Event "Berks and Bucks Junior Invitation"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1979.08.25"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Arkell, K.."]
[Black "Barrett, S.."]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C44"]
[WhiteElo "177"]
[BlackElo "153"]
[PlyCount "15"]
[EventDate "1979.??.??"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Bc4 Be7 5. c3 dxc3 6. Qd5 d6 7. Qxf7+ Kd7 8.
Be6# 1-0

This is my shortest win against someone strong enough to represent their country ( Wales):

[Event "e2e4 Sunningdale Autumn"]
[Site "Sunningdale ENG"]
[Date "2011.09.16"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Pleasants, A.."]
[Black "Arkell, K.."]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B15"]
[WhiteElo "2079"]
[BlackElo "2409"]
[PlyCount "24"]
[EventDate "2011.09.16"]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. f3 exf3 5. Nxf3 Bg4 6. Bc4 e6 7. O-O Nf6 8. h3
Bxf3 9. Rxf3 Nbd7 10. Bg5 Be7 11. Qd2 h6 12. Bh4 Ne5 0-1

And this is my shortest win against an IM. It was last year:

[Event "20th 4NCL Congress 2018"]
[Site "Nottingham ENG"]
[Date "2018.09.29"]
[Round "3.3"]
[White "Arkell, K.."]
[Black "Zapolskis, A.."]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A40"]
[WhiteElo "2432"]
[BlackElo "2277"]
[PlyCount "25"]
[EventDate "2018.09.28"]

1. d4 b5 2. Nf3 Bb7 3. Bg5 c5 4. c3 h6 5. Bh4 Qb6 6. e3 e6 7. Nbd2 Ne7 8. a4
cxd4 9. Nxd4 a6 10. axb5 axb5 11. Nxb5 Rxa1 12. Qxa1 Nf5 13. Qa7 1-0

Keith: you used to play e4, and sac pawns for fun? I look forward to seeing examples of any punts you have had with the Morra gambit (a way to win quickly with White, or lose slowly)!

I went back to my roots a few years ago when I tried the Morra against GM Bauer in the 4NCL. It was no fun when he declined the gambit with ...d3. Although I think accepting the gambit is good for Black, his decision was a wise one: why take any risks? I emerged with some advantage from the opening but the game took on a positional character in which he was able to excel.

I lost slowly.

I assume we're talking about proper competitive games here, because we must most of us have lost to Scholar's Mate when we were learning.

(It's not what I would call a proper competitive game, but I did manage a quick win in a server game some years ago which went 1 f4 e5 2 fxe5 d6 3 exd6 Bxd6 4 Nf3 g5 5 h3 and I did the necessary.)

About 35 years ago I played a colleague in the Government Chemists' Championship, which went 1.e4 c5, 2.Nf3 Nc6, 3.d4 cxd4, 4.Nxd4 Nf6, 5.Nc3 e5, 6.Ndb5 Ne7, 7.Nd6 1-0 (he was graded about 100, but obviously had a bad day.)

And in casual games I have several times managed as black, 1.f4 e5, 2.fxe5 d6, 3.exd6 Bxd6, 4.Nc3 (or b3) Qh4+, 5.g3 Qxg3+ ("An unnecessary flourish!" - John Nunn) 6.hxg3 Bxg3 0-1

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 16, 2019 1:27 pm

1.e4 c5, 2.Nf3 Nc6, 3.d4 cxd4, 4.Nxd4 Nf6, 5.Nc3 e5, 6.Ndb5 Ne7, 7.Nd6 1-0

That looks like The Worst Move On The Board to me, tbough I'm also reminded of this.

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 16, 2019 1:27 pm

About 35 years ago I played a colleague in the Government Chemists' Championship

The what?

Alex Holowczak wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 16, 2019 2:18 pm

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 16, 2019 1:27 pm

About 35 years ago I played a colleague in the Government Chemists' Championship

The what?

Not an organisation to be taken lightly. Decades ago I gave a simul there and the opposition was strong..

My shortest ever win remains one I played in 1982 at the age of 16 when I had been playing seriously for just a year.

My opponent had been graded 130 the previous season:

1 e4 e5 2 f4 d6?! 3 Nf3 Nc6 4 Bb5 Nge7?! 5 fe5 de5 6 Ne5 a6 7 Nc6!? ab5??? 8 Nd8 Kd8 9 d4 1-0

My 7th was not the best if Black correctly plays 7....bc6, but was evidently worth a try

Leonard Barden wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 16, 2019 2:39 pm

Not an organisation to be taken lightly. Decades ago I gave a simul there and the opposition was strong..

Did you play J C Thompson of Hippo fame ?

E Michael White wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 16, 2019 4:16 pm

Leonard Barden wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 16, 2019 2:39 pm

Not an organisation to be taken lightly. Decades ago I gave a simul there and the opposition was strong..

Did you play J C Thompson of Hippo fame ?

Very likely, though I don't remember any individual games from that simul, just that it took much longer than was my norm then and that I had some defeats plus a late train back to the suburbs. Kevin might have better recall.

I think I also played JC Thompson at Bognor, maybe 1956 or so, and had a hard time breaking down the Hippo.

Leonard Barden wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 16, 2019 2:39 pm

Alex Holowczak wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 16, 2019 2:18 pm

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 16, 2019 1:27 pm

About 35 years ago I played a colleague in the Government Chemists' Championship

The what?

Not an organisation to be taken lightly. Decades ago I gave a simul there and the opposition was strong..

It probably wasn't that strong, and your mistake was to accept their offer of a "drink" at the start.

But actually, I didn't even realise such a thing existed. Does it still?