"Most players are inclined to resign too late rather than too early, but the opposite case is not unknown. In this page of missed last-minute escapes we refrain from giving such well-known chessnuts as von Popiel-Marco; all our examples are relatively recent and, we hope, new to our readers."
White looked at 1.Rh7 Ka5 2.Rxb7 Ka3 3.Rb8 Ka7 and resigned. He could have saved the game in two different ways!
Solution - don't peek till you've tried!
This is one of the strangest happenings in the history of tournament chess. After Mieses had resigned, his colleagues pointed out to him that 1.Rh7 Ka5 2. Rh8 (instead of Rxb7!) would probably have won, because with the king on the a-file the threat of Ra8+ could not be parried.
Could it not? In 1950 – 36 years after the event – grandmaster Szabo pointed out that 1...Ka5? Is a serious error for Black, instead of which he must play (1...a1=Q if then 2.Rxb7+ Ka5 3.Ra7+ Kb4! 4.Rxa1 – and Black is stalemated.
But this is not the end. Another seven years later. S. Driman, of Johannesburg (South Africa) found that Mieses’ first idea, 1.Rh7 Ka5 2.Rxb7 Ka6 and now 3.Bf3! was also good enough to draw. For if now 3... a1=Q 4.Bd5! the Black queen is helpless to budge the position of the White Rook, Bishop and pawn, with the easiest of easy “positional“ draws!
A remarkable position - again showing why chess is such an attractive game. However, on research I have encountered a number of problems with this position. Firstly, the game was not played in the Mannheim tournament of 1914. Secondly, on a web search of games databases I can not find the game either. It may have been played during the internment of the players in Mannheim but you would expect the score to be available. Anyone who can clarify these questions please contact me.
1 comment:
In "Chess Tournaments: A Checklist Vol I 1849-1950" Jeremy Gaige lists (as well as the tournament abruptly ended by the outbreak of WW1) a tournament held in Mannheim in April 1914 and won by Bogoljubow. Unfortunately Gaige did not have a crosstable for the event, so I can't say who else was playing, but perhaps it's this April tournament that the game comes from.
Don't think it can have anything to do with the interned players' events - these were all played at Triberg (except the first at Baden-Baden) and only involved Russian players.
Post a Comment