English Chess Forum

Neither of the above. He was born when Andrew Jackson was the president of America.

H E Bird. It ought to have been Franklin K Young because it looks like the sort of garbage he might have churned out but he lived on into the 1930s so I guess it's not him, so my nomination is Henry Edward.

Not him. The author in question has a strong literary connection with chess in more than one respect becoming the librarian of Cornell University upon its inception.

And here he is in action.

D. W. Fiske

Correct once again Tim.

From which text, written in the 1950s, does the passage below come from and any thoughts on who won the game?

'In chess, a pawn may be captured “in passing” — when a pawn advances two squares from its initial position, it may be captured by an adjacent pawn as if it had advanced only one square.

This can lead to a curious state of affairs: From this position White plays 1. Bg2+ and declares checkmate. Black says “Au contraire,” plays 1. … d5, and announces checkmate himself. White shakes his head, plays 2. cxd6 e.p., and reasserts his own claim:
Black claims that this last move is absurd. He says the game ended when he advanced his pawn to d5. But White argues that the pawn never reached d5 — in principle it was captured on d6, and thus could not stop White’s original mate.'

So who won the game? It would seem to be a matter of opinion!

"Justice Good and True" (Heinrich Fraenkel, AKA Assiac).

Fraenkel is in no doubt: "...... the Professor, so far from being a master at chess, would seem to be a master at sophistry rather than at logic".

From the second diagram, Black continues 2. ... Bxh3 and claims the game. As Gerald Abrahams once remarked (I forget where): "first king lost loses".

BTW, the book this little conundrum comes from is The Pleasures Of Chess (originally published as Adventure In Chess, afterwards renamed to be a better companion title to the same author's The Delights Of Chess).

Yes correct. I thought that one would be hard to get.

Who came up with this oddity? It's mate in 21 and not too hard.

MJMcCready wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 29, 2017 10:15 pm

So who won the game? It would seem to be a matter of opinion!

I agree with John Clarke that Black wins in this curious example, but of course taking the king is not allowed in any form of chess now as a response to an illegal move.

It's a case of helpmate in one move since 1...d5 is a perfectly legitimate reply to 1 Bg2+?? but 2 c5xd6 does not get White out of check so is illegal.

I take it that White in this example was an ancestor of Inarkiev?

MJMcCready wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 30, 2017 12:16 pm

Who came up with this oddity? It's mate in 21 and not too hard.

Thomas Rayner Dawson

Happy New Year, everyone! May all your research meet with good fortune.

My question (below) may be considered a sequel to Christopher Kreuzer's recent theme of the Bonus Socius collection.

Which celebrated nineteenth-century player was once the owner of a copy of a famous medieval manuscript collection of chess and other games, including 288 chess problems, which is now preserved in an English museum?

It was Baron Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa

http://webapps.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/exp ... oid=178358