Beware the mating net....

[Nick Burrows]

In my last round game at the E2-E4 Chester Congress I played against the talented Junior Imogen Camp.

After a very dry London System, I gradually eked out an advantage and we eventually reached the following position. Imogen has just played 53. f4

R7/4r1k1/3np1p1/3p1pP1/3P1P2/4P1K1/8/8 b - f3 0 53

How to progress was not entirely clear, as whenever black's rook leaves base, whites rook gives my King a headache. There followed:

53. .... Nc4
54. Kf2 Rb7
55. Ra1 Nd2
56. Ke2 Ne4
57. Kf3!?! From her facial expressions I believe Imogen had missed the 'mating net' but it is actually a very good move!

8/1r4k1/4p1p1/3p1pP1/3PnP2/4PK2/8/R7 b - - 0 57

57. .... Rb2??
58. Ra7+ Kf8
59. Rf7!! A firm slap with a wet fish! Well played!

5k2/5R2/4p1p1/3p1pP1/3PnP2/4PK2/1r6/8 b - - 0 59

59. .... Ke8
60. Re7+ Kd8
61. Rd7+ Kc8
62. Rc7+ Kb8
63. Rc8+

1/2 - 1/2

So be careful that whenever you weave a mating net, you have not in fact knitted yourself a very stale net instead!

[Greg Breed]

Haha very good Imogen! Hard cheese Nick but a lesson learned
Don't feel bad, many of us could have fallen for it, myself included. These juniors are very sharp!

[Sabrina Chevannes]

So awesome!! Well done Imogen for remembering this and finding it at a difficult time in a game! Excellent!

[David Sedgwick]

So awesome!! Well done Imogen for remembering this and finding it at a difficult time in a game! Excellent!

And credit to Nick for telling the story against himself. How many of us would have been tempted to keep very quiet?

[Ian Stephens]

Ouch Nick, that "Rf7+ slap" must of hurt!! Chapeau! to Imogen Camp, I searched for two such finishes to my games at Chester but just got mated!

[Greg Breed]

Yeah... Kudos for posting it!

[Greg Breed]

I came across "The Polish Immortal" today. Like Wow dude!
This shows the difference between super GM's and the rest.

The key position (can you believe it?) is from move 13 for black. Najdorf had to have calculated the variations until the end to go for it!!!

Glücksberg-Najdorf
Warsaw 1935
1. d4 f5 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nc3 e6 4. Nf3 d5 5. e3 c6 6. Bd3 Bd6 7. O-O O-O 8. Ne2 Nbd7 9. Ng5 Bxh2 10. Kh1 (10. Kxh2 Ng4+ 11. Kg1 Qxg5) Ng4 11. f4 (11. Nxe6 Qh4) {leads to mate} Qe8 12. g3 Qh5 13. Kg2 Bg1 14. Nxg1 (14. Rxg1 Qh2+ 15. Kf1 Qf2#) (14. Nf3 Bxe3) Qh2 15. Kf3 e5 16. dxe5 Ndxe5 17. fxe5 Nxe5 18. Kf4 Ng6 19. Kf3 f4 20. exf4 (20. Bxg6 Bg4+ 21. Kxg4 Qxg3+ 22. Kh5 hxg6+ 23. Kxg6 Rf6+ 24. Kh5 Rh6#) Bg4 21. Kxg4 (21. Ke3 Bxd1 22. Rxd1 Qxg3+) Ne5 22. fxe5 h5#

(edit: Now that I know how to input variations and comments I have updated this jewel.)

[Greg Breed]

I found a wonderful chess problem today on Shredder Chess. Talk about a mating net!!!

[FEN "8/6pK/4q3/7k/4Nb1r/2R3P1/2p3R1/7B w - - 0 1"] 1. g4+ Rxg4 (1... Qxg4 2. Rc5+ Bg5 3. Rxg5+ Qxg5 4. Rxg5#) 2. Rh3+ Rh4 3. Rg5+ Bxg5 4. Bf3+ Qg4 5. Ng3#

[Nick Burrows]

I found a wonderful chess problem today on Shredder Chess. Talk about a mating net!!!

[FEN "8/6pK/4q3/7k/4Nb1r/2R3P1/2p3R1/7B w - - 0 1"] 1. g4+ Rxg4 (1... Qxg4 2. Rc5+ Bg5 3. Rxg5+ Qxg5 4. Rxg5#) 2. Rh3+ Rh4 3. Rg5+ Bxg5 4. Bf3+ Qg4 5. Ng3#

Ace!

[Andrew Bak]

Pin-erefic!

[MartinCarpenter]

Nice!

A beautiful game from Nardojf but actually not so terribly hard to play I could imagine a club player doing it.

'All' black actually needs to do to play that game is to notice Bg1 as an idea, notice that he has at least a forced draw on moves 17/18 with very clear potential for more, play to that position and then calculate the forced finish. The first bit might almost be the hardest as the rest is so very cleanly forced.

[David Blower]

Unfortately the chess website does not exist anymore, and therefore notation of the game does not exist and I can't remember the exact position now. But I got a draw with no pawn advancement or capture for 50 moves by exactly this sort of method.

My king didn't have a legal move in the game, my pawns were all blocked from going forward, but I still had a rook. I was losing heavily in material.

My opponent had being giving me loads of checks thoughout the period before in the game, but this move was not a check. As I was about to play my king, I realised that playing it, would move the king into check. Suddenly stumped for a move I looked at anywhere I could move my king thinking the exact same thing, anywhere I moved the king was moving it into check.

Heres the thing, I realised I could get a stalemate ALMOST INSTANTLY. It was just some sort of instinct I had, it wasn't as if I remembered an exact position or anything! It was just something that clicked in my brain.

This of course required me getting rid of a rook I didn't need. So I spent the entire 50 moves playing checks with my rook right next to their king. They worked out it was also a stalemate had they took the rook, so spent the entire 50 moves moving the king away from my rook! Eventually I managed to get the draw after 50 moves.

[Roger de Coverly]

They worked out it was also a stalemate had they took the rook, so spent the entire 50 moves moving the king away from my rook! Eventually I managed to get the draw after 50 moves.

Rather bad manners by your opponent I would have thought. By all means play a few moves to check that there wasn't an escape from the checks, but it shouldn't need fifty.

[David Blower]

Yes, but they were frustrated because they were winning in material.

They kept typing things in chat such as: "I've won this game, now just let me win." "Your just sad, looking anyway possible for a draw." Etc.

They refused all my draw offers. I didn't bother to reply so had to just make all the moves.

[Reg Clucas]

Eventually I managed to get the draw after 50 moves.

If you were just giving check with a single rook, then I'd be surprised if there wasn't a 3-fold repetition well before the 50 moves were up?