Castling with checkmate

[IM Jack Rudd]

Managed this in a game in an Arena event yesterday:

[Event "Live Chess"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2021.12.16"] [Round "?"] [White "derickcruz"] [Black "JackRudd"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A00"] [WhiteElo "1691"] [BlackElo "2521"] [TimeControl "300"] [EndTime "19:02:09 PST"] [Termination "JackRudd won by checkmate"] 1. d3 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. g3 d5 4. Bg2 f5 5. c3 Nf6 6. Qa4 Bd7 7. Bg5 h6 8. Bxf6 Qxf6 9. Qb3 e4 10. dxe4 dxe4 11. Nd4 Nxd4 12. cxd4 Qxd4 13. Qxb7 Bb4+ 14. Nc3 Bxc3+ 15. bxc3 Qxc3+ 16. Kd1 Ba4+ 17. Qb3 O-O-O# 0-1

[Nick Ivell]

I seem to recall a Morphy game which ended o-o-o mate. That was a king hunt though.

[John Upham]

and the oft quoted Ed. Lasker - Thomas game from 29th October 1912 ended with either 18.0-0-0# or 18.Kd2# depending on the game source.

[Nick Ivell]

Castling is much more artistic than Kd2. And Jack could just have played Rd8!

[Richard James]

and the oft quoted Ed. Lasker - Thomas game from 29th October 1912 ended with either 18.0-0-0# or 18.Kd2# depending on the game source.

‘Instead of checkmating with K-Q2 I could have done it by castling, which would perhaps have been more spectacular, as no player has ever been mated that way before, as far as I know. I actually considered castling, but the efficiency-minded engineer in me got the better of it and I played K-Q2 which required moving only one piece.’

Source: https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/ext ... homas.html

[Richard James]

I seem to recall a Morphy game which ended o-o-o mate. That was a king hunt though.

[Event "Morphy casual"] [Site "New Orleans"] [Date "1850.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Morphy, Paul"] [Black "Morphy, Alonzo"] [Result "1-0"] [Annotator "ChessBase"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/1NBQKBNR w Kkq - 0 1"] [PlyCount "35"] [EventDate "1850.??.??"] [EventType "game"] [EventCountry "USA"] [SourceTitle "EXT 2017"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "2016.10.25"] [SourceVersion "1"] [SourceVersionDate "2016.10.25"] [SourceQuality "1"] 1. e4 {1)Sergeant,P: Morphy's Games of Chess. game CCXCVII. p.343. 2)Lawson: Paul Morphy. p.82,} e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Nxd5 6. Nxf7 Kxf7 7. Qf3+ Ke6 8. Nc3 Nd4 9. Bxd5+ Kd6 10. Qf7 Be6 11. Bxe6 Nxe6 12. Ne4+ Kd5 13. c4+ Kxe4 14. Qxe6 Qd4 15. Qg4+ Kd3 16. Qe2+ Kc2 17. d3+ Kxc1 18. O-O# 1-0

[Nick Ivell]

Thank you Richard. I had forgotten there was no QR!

[David Williams]

Just as well Jack's opponent wasn't Grandmaster Yuri Averbach.

[John Townsend]

"Castling to administer mate" is one of the sections of the feature article "Castling in Chess":

https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/castling.html

That section ends with a link to an article, "Chaos in a Miniature", discussing the famous game Edward Lasker v George Thomas, London, 1912, which ended in 18. Kd2 mate:

https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/ext ... homas.html

[David Sedgwick]

I seem to recall a Morphy game which ended o-o-o mate. That was a king hunt though.

[Event "Morphy casual"] [Site "New Orleans"] [Date "1850.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Morphy, Paul"] [Black "Morphy, Alonzo"] [Result "1-0"] [Annotator "ChessBase"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/1NBQKBNR w Kkq - 0 1"] [PlyCount "35"] [EventDate "1850.??.??"] [EventType "game"] [EventCountry "USA"] [SourceTitle "EXT 2017"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "2016.10.25"] [SourceVersion "1"] [SourceVersionDate "2016.10.25"] [SourceQuality "1"] 1. e4 {1)Sergeant,P: Morphy's Games of Chess. game CCXCVII. p.343. 2)Lawson: Paul Morphy. p.82,} e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Nxd5 6. Nxf7 Kxf7 7. Qf3+ Ke6 8. Nc3 Nd4 9. Bxd5+ Kd6 10. Qf7 Be6 11. Bxe6 Nxe6 12. Ne4+ Kd5 13. c4+ Kxe4 14. Qxe6 Qd4 15. Qg4+ Kd3 16. Qe2+ Kc2 17. d3+ Kxc1 18. O-O# 1-0

I was interested to see that you describe the game as having been played in 1850 against Alonzo Morphy, Paul Morphy's father. Does that come from Lawson, whose book I do not possess?

Sergeant (ibid) and other sources describe the opponent as an unknown "Amateur" and date the game 1858, by when Alonzo Morphy was deceased.

It's also worth noting that after 17 ... Kb1!, rather than 17 ... Kxc1??, the outcome is far from clear.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi David,

Charles Maurian published the game in 1858 as Morphy v an Amateur but in 1884 changed this to a game
between father and son dating it around about 1850 (more details in Lawson book page 82.)

Macon Shibut, 'Paul Morphy and the Evolution of Chess Theory' has dated it 1854.

I was looking at chessgames.com for details and spotted that at one time they had to
give the final moves as a comment because then their system could not handle odds
games and it insisted that there was a Rook on a1.

17...Kb1 White castles

r4b1r/ppp3pp/8/4p3/2Pq4/3P4/PP2QPPP/1kB2RK1 b - - 0 18

The threats of Be3+ or b3 mating in a few moves surely win.

[Richard James]

Hi David,

Charles Maurian published the game in 1858 as Morphy v an Amateur but in 1884 changed this to a game
between father and son dating it around about 1850 (more details in Lawson book page 82.)

Macon Shibut, 'Paul Morphy and the Evolution of Chess Theory' has dated it 1854.

I was looking at chessgames.com for details and spotted that at one time they had to
give the final moves as a comment because then their system could not handle odds
games and it insisted that there was a Rook on a1.

17...Kb1 White castles

r4b1r/ppp3pp/8/4p3/2Pq4/3P4/PP2QPPP/1kB2RK1 b - - 0 18

The threats of Be3+ or b3 mating in a few moves surely win.

Many thanks, Geoff. I was going to look it up myself but you've saved me the trouble.

I'd copied the game directly from MegaBase, which isn't the most reliable of sources.

Readers will be familiar with the brevity (queen’s rook odds, New Orleans, 1858) in which Morphy gave mate by castling. In all the sources that we have consulted the loser is an anonymous amateur, but when the game appeared on page 174 of the October 1878 American Chess Journal it was introduced as follows:

‘The following short game, given as an unpublished one by the great Paul Morphy, we extract from a recent Globe Democrat, to where it was contributed by Judge Ballard, of Louisville, who is supposed to be the amateur; we do not remember ever to have seen a similar termination occur in actual play.’

(2731)

Alfred Wallace (St Louis, MO, USA) kindly provides Benjamin R. Foster’s introductory text from the 29 September 1878 Sunday Supplemental Sheet of the Globe Democrat:

‘The following game, which has never been published, was kindly forwarded to us by one of our constant contributors, to whom it was sent by Judge Ballard, of Louisville, who is supposed to be the amateur. It is very remarkable in its termination, Paul Morphy actually mating by castling. We take great pleasure in giving to the public this game, as it is another evidence of the wonderful intellect of the world’s chess champion.’

(2739)

Source: https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/castling.html

[Christopher Kreuzer]

17...Kb1 White castles

r4b1r/ppp3pp/8/4p3/2Pq4/3P4/PP2QPPP/1kB2RK1 b - - 0 18

The threats of Be3+ or b3 mating in a few moves surely win.

After 18...Kxa2, what does White do? Is 19.Qc2 stronger than the immediate 19.b4?

[IM Jack Rudd]

17...Kb1 White castles

r4b1r/ppp3pp/8/4p3/2Pq4/3P4/PP2QPPP/1kB2RK1 b - - 0 18

The threats of Be3+ or b3 mating in a few moves surely win.

What does White do after the following?

18.O-O Kxa2

19.Qc2 followed by b3+ or b4+.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

17...Kb1 White castles

r4b1r/ppp3pp/8/4p3/2Pq4/3P4/PP2QPPP/1kB2RK1 b - - 0 18

The threats of Be3+ or b3 mating in a few moves surely win.

What does White do after the following?

18.O-O Kxa2

19.Qc2 followed by b3+ or b4+.

Yeah, sorry, just saw that, and was editing my original post to include that. It is clearly winning, isn't it. But you can imagine some players trying an immediate b4+ and losing.