Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Historical knowledge and information regarding our great game.
Matt Fletcher
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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by Matt Fletcher » Sat Sep 30, 2017 12:00 pm

I was just about to post this which I think is the same as (at least, very similar to) John's analysis above.

I'm pretty sure move 24-28 are right - nothing else fits with the length of the moves. Similarly to John, I'm not sure where the black Rook goes on move 22 - also where the black Bishop goes on move 29, or which Rook is taken on move 23.


Richard Bates
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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by Richard Bates » Sat Sep 30, 2017 12:39 pm

Would think black's 29th is probably Bc4 (B-B5). White's next three being Kb2-a3-b4 and black spending most of his next few moves punting his K-side pawns down the board.

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JustinHorton
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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by JustinHorton » Sat Sep 30, 2017 5:42 pm

So if you're right, that might give us

29 ... B-B5
30 K-Kt2 P-R4
31 K-R3 P-Kt4
32 K-Kt4

and then the bishop moves, but to where?
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Matt Fletcher
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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by Matt Fletcher » Sat Sep 30, 2017 6:18 pm

JustinHorton wrote:So if you're right, that might give us

29 ... B-B5
30 K-Kt2 P-R4
31 K-R3 P-Kt4
32 K-Kt4

and then the bishop moves, but to where?
Based on seeing some 7s and 8s, some possible knight moves and the pawn captures on move 38, I've got the following written down:

32...B-R3
33. Kt-Kt5 ???
34. Kt-[Q6?] ???
35. B-B7 ???
36. B-Kt8 ???
37. B-R7 P-R5
38. PxP PxP
39. B-Kt6 P-R6

But I'm struggling to produce a reasonable set of Black moves for 33-36 that fit with White's.

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JustinHorton
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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by JustinHorton » Sun Oct 01, 2017 10:44 am

Isn't Black's 34th a capture, by the way?
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Matt Fletcher
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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by Matt Fletcher » Sun Oct 01, 2017 11:17 am

JustinHorton wrote:Isn't Black's 34th a capture, by the way?
I didn't think so - though I could potentially be persuaded.

I think it might just be possible to go a bit further with this (albeit with some speculative intermediate moves) as Black clearly promotes with check on move 49.

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Gerard Killoran
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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by Gerard Killoran » Sun Oct 01, 2017 1:10 pm

Can I congratulate the team on a mighty effort. I think too many of the moves in the right-hand column are just too hard to decipher, but Black's 34th seems to be B-B i.e. Bc8. (or it could be B-R i.e. Ba8)

The problem seems to be that Black's bishop and rook have too many squares to choose from for a full reconstruction to be possible.

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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by JustinHorton » Sun Oct 01, 2017 9:14 pm

Ah that's interesting, but do we have any reason to reckon they employed that usage? (I also note the paper with the Felce score has 20....QR-KBsq.)
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John McKenna

Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by John McKenna » Mon Oct 02, 2017 1:01 am

… another bygone practice was to write, for example, R-Ksq instead of R-K1, and this survives in the occasional American R-K but is not recommended as chess moves lend themselves to printer's errors. (Oxford Companion)
White's 37th move in the text of the game in question could be just B-R (implying the unique B-R7, i.e. Bb8-a7)

On the other hand there's also the ghost of a figure 7 (or even a ?) immediately after the move.

Colin Patterson
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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by Colin Patterson » Mon Oct 02, 2017 4:52 pm

John's post has reminded me that 'Lasker's Greatest Chess Games' by Reinfeld & Fine employs this minimalist 'B-R' notation system that he speaks of. I was initially convinced that the book was full of typing errors. Thankfully, that wasn't the case, but I don't think I've seen it used elsewhere.

John McKenna

Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by John McKenna » Thu Oct 05, 2017 6:59 pm

Thanks, Colin, for confirming (above) that the Americans did use that short form of descriptive notation.
Gerard Killoran wrote:Can I congratulate the team on a mighty effort. I think too many of the moves in the right-hand column are just too hard to decipher, but Black's 34th seems to be B-B i.e. Bc8. (or it could be B-R i.e. Ba8)

The problem seems to be that Black's bishop and rook have too many squares to choose from for a full reconstruction to be possible.
Gerard, I hope that the following somewhat speculative further reconstruction, based on the 'team' efforts here thus far, is good enough to at least indicate lines plausible enough to allow a more complete deciphering -


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Gerard Killoran
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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by Gerard Killoran » Sat Oct 07, 2017 2:55 pm

Well done John. An impressive piece of work. I would be surprised if the game turns out to be different from your reconstruction. The moves have a logical flow and none of them would need to be queried by a mixture of question and exclamation marks.

As for the game itself it shows how to play against a master in a simul. Give him (or her) a lot of tactical problems to solve, get ahead, and then hang on - and don't panic - when they turn on their technique.

More proof that chess players can resist anything, except a challenge.

John McKenna

Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by John McKenna » Sun Oct 08, 2017 12:41 am

Thanks for finding that rough diamond of a game and issuing the challenge, Gerard. What you said at the conclusion of your post, above, rings true.

Without that and without the team effort I couldn't have contributed to cutting the gem.

There may yet be some minor flaws or slight blemishes within it - the moves of the black rook and bishop in the endgame are not totally clear.

Geoff Chandler
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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by Geoff Chandler » Mon Oct 09, 2017 1:16 am

Hi the game in question. It is game no.83a in Aitken's Chess Scorebook which is at the Edinburgh Chess Club.

I'm passing this on from Dave Archibald who cannot seem to log on.

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Gerard Killoran
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Re: Sultan Khan - A newly discovered game and a challenge

Post by Gerard Killoran » Mon Oct 09, 2017 2:27 am

This is when the gold coins are showered on the table! Bravo!!