Chess history trivia

Historical knowledge and information regarding our great game.
Andy Stoker
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by Andy Stoker » Sun Aug 16, 2020 5:44 pm

A wallow of Hippos?!

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MJMcCready
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by MJMcCready » Mon Aug 17, 2020 8:18 am

But was he trying it on or did he genuinely forget he'd already castled?

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MJMcCready
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by MJMcCready » Mon Aug 17, 2020 8:21 am

Seeing as a player was Irish this leads onto a question that I noticed about 6 months ago, that commentators made a mess of. The topic of an Irish pawn centre came up. What is it and who started that off/or who is it attributed to?

John Moore
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by John Moore » Mon Aug 17, 2020 9:23 am

Tripled isolated pawns on a central file and Tony Miles first referred to it in the Amsterdam Zonal tournament in 1978.

Tim Harding
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by Tim Harding » Mon Aug 17, 2020 10:25 am

MJMcCready wrote:
Mon Aug 17, 2020 8:18 am
But was he trying it on or did he genuinely forget he'd already castled?
Wolfgang genuinely forgot he had castled already; he was not a cheat.

This is not the only instance of illegal castling by any means (there was one in the 2019 Glorney Cup and another in the last Women's Olympiad) but the only one I am aware of with three castlings in the same game.
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MJMcCready
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by MJMcCready » Mon Aug 17, 2020 11:01 am

I suppose it's easily done even though you've written it down already. It's probably the most mechanical move made in chess and often treated as a given rather than a move requiring thought.

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MJMcCready
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by MJMcCready » Mon Aug 17, 2020 11:02 am

John Moore wrote:
Mon Aug 17, 2020 9:23 am
Tripled isolated pawns on a central file and Tony Miles first referred to it in the Amsterdam Zonal tournament in 1978.
Did he ever dare set foot in Ireland after saying that I wonder?

John Moore
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by John Moore » Mon Aug 17, 2020 11:13 am

Well, he played in the Dublin Zonal in 1993.

Caoimhín de Búrca
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by Caoimhín de Búrca » Mon Aug 17, 2020 12:31 pm

I think it specifically relates to two games involving the Irish player Éamon Keogh in that tournament.

The first game is here; the pawns arise at move 10. Miles then played Keogh in the next round and won, with his final move being to establish tripled pawns.

John Moore
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by John Moore » Mon Aug 17, 2020 12:42 pm

That's right. The games were analysed by Tony in the short lived periodical International Chess (which was a very impressive publication but only ran to two issues).

Caoimhín de Búrca
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by Caoimhín de Búrca » Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:10 pm

It should be added that in Ireland, if the tripled pawns are black, then white is morally obliged to push a pawn to meet them and immediately buy both players a pint of Guinness.


(May not be entirely true...!)

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:38 pm

"It should be added that in Ireland, if the tripled pawns are black, then white is morally obliged to push a pawn to meet them and immediately buy both players a pint of Guinness."

It should be true though!

(And congratulations on having such a distinguished name.)

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MJMcCready
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by MJMcCready » Tue Aug 18, 2020 5:09 am

Which game contains the largest amount of letters in the surnames of the two players when added together? For example G.Jones versus V.Anand =10.

John Moore
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by John Moore » Tue Aug 18, 2020 7:02 am

My first bid is Shaposhnikov v Konstantinopolsky who played in the Russian Team Championship at Riga in 1954. That is 29.

But almost immediately I see that Konstantinopolsky played Bonch Osmolovsky in the Moscow Championship of 1949 which, if I can count, is 32.

The problem with the question is Spanish players like Iturrizaga Bonelli. Do you count all of that as his surname.

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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by NickFaulks » Tue Aug 18, 2020 9:49 am

The Thai U18 championships in 2019 featured Charoenlarpnopparut - Chotichanathawewong. ( 38 )

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