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Re: Excelsior!?
Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 2:22 pm
by Roger de Coverly
Matt Mackenzie wrote:Surely it might be worthwhile White playing on in the final position there!?
Adjournment after move 40 might have been an issue. As it was the last round of the prelims, it was also presumably the last "proper" game Alexander would play for approaching six years.
Re: Excelsior!?
Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 3:26 pm
by Ian Kingston
The Oxford Companion to Chess notes that although Sam Loyd was responsible for the name Excelsior, the theme had been shown earlier:
The Companion notes that Loyd achieved the task 'much less crudely'.
Re: Excelsior!?
Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 11:53 pm
by John McKenna
Thanks to Ian, above, for taking us back - before Loyd.
I don't think I've ever come close to a real excelsior, or even a delayed one. Think I'd remember if I had. Can't even recall the last time I promoted a pawn - only truncated league games lately. Off topic again, but the last time I remember coming close to promoting was this excruciating double-delayed-indefinitely-deferred-pawn-promotion race -
Re: Excelsior!?
Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2018 3:54 pm
by IM Jack Rudd
[Event "4NCL Division 1a"]
[Site "Daventry, ENG"]
[Date "2018.11.11"]
[Round "2.31"]
[White "Sreeves, Clement"]
[Black "Rudd, Jack"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C10"]
[WhiteElo "2358"]
[BlackElo "2234"]
[PlyCount "41"]
[EventDate "2018.11.11"]
[WhiteTeam "Alba"]
[BlackTeam "West is Best 1"]
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Ng5 Ngf6 6. Bd3 e6 7. N1f3 Bd6 8.
Qe2 h6 9. Ne4 Nxe4 10. Qxe4 Nf6 11. Qe2 c5 12. Bd2 O-O 13. dxc5 Bxc5 14. O-O-O
Qb6 15. Ne5 Rd8 16. Kb1 Bd7 17. g4 Nd5 18. g5 Rac8 19. gxh6 g6 20. h7+ Kg7 21.
h8=Q+ 1-0
Re: Excelsior!?
Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2018 7:07 pm
by Michael Farthing
[Come on Jack! It's quite easy to learn how to do it].
Re: Excelsior!?
Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2018 1:39 pm
by John McKenna
Good of Jack (and Michael F) to posthumorously publish how he was run through by an Excalibur pawn.
If you are going to lose on the morning after the night before you may as well do so in a blaze of reflected glory rather than prolong your suffering.
(Alba 4.5 - 3.5 WiB probably hurts more than the individual result.)
Re: Excelsior!?
Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2018 1:42 pm
by Alex Holowczak
John McKenna wrote: ↑Tue Nov 13, 2018 1:39 pm
Good of Jack (and Michael F) to
posthumously publish how he was run through by an Excalibur pawn.
I think I know what you mean, but I suspect "posthumously" isn't the right word.
Re: Excelsior!?
Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2018 1:56 pm
by John McKenna
Not to worry Alex - I'm sure Jack was soon fully restored to life after the morning of the living zombies effect wore off.
Re: Excelsior!?
Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2018 2:15 pm
by Thomas Rendle
What's the longest a failed Excelsior has sat on the 7th after failing to make it the final step?
Re: Excelsior!?
Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2018 7:44 pm
by John Clarke
An excelsior using minimal material (study by H F Blandford, 1949). White to win - by means of a strange device of course.
Re: Excelsior!?
Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2018 9:40 pm
by Tim Harding
Ian Kingston wrote: ↑Tue Feb 19, 2013 3:26 pm
...
[White "Worwald, Robert"]
That should be WORMALD, Robert Bownas
Re: Excelsior!?
Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2018 10:16 pm
by Tim Harding
Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑Tue Feb 19, 2013 2:22 pm
Matt Mackenzie wrote:Surely it might be worthwhile White playing on in the final position there!?
Adjournment after move 40 might have been an issue. As it was the last round of the prelims, it was also presumably the last "proper" game Alexander would play for approaching six years.
Matt is right!
A curious and instructive endgame, thank you. I will tell Karsten Mueller about it.
Re: Excelsior!?
Posted: Sat May 28, 2022 11:55 am
by Francis Fields
Dont you think that the excelsior has no technical meaning and is a curiosity?