Black to play
Imagine you're sitting at the board and you're faced with this position.
Next, imagine you have Black and are about to play your 14th move against an opponent rated around 170 BCF (2100 elo equivalent, give or take, for our international readers). Imagine you have a crystal ball and therefore know you will secure victory in 13 more moves.
Finally, imagine you're Robin Haldane and therefore not quite like other men. You have, shall we say, your own unique (and highly effective) style.
So what are you going to play?
11 comments:
The only way to give up a pawn I can see is 14...b5!
Well my inclination is 14...b5. Am I right?
Oddly enough, having sat next to Robin for several years playing for S&B, I now find myself having a similar experience here. The next board tends to play games where his position gets worse and worse the longer I look at it - first a pawn down for nebulous compensation, then two pawns....
....and when I next look at the game he's a piece up.
Nope. ... b5 was not the move played by the original RH.
Try again.
Wait a minute. The white monarch is on the kingside, not the queenside!
14...g5.
Only one of them - the queen is also a monarch.
Mind you, if she's the queen merely by virtue of being married to the king, is she considered a monarch nevertheless?
Go on, waste your Friday lunchtime on that question.
Ah, but I was imagining myself to be Robin Haldane - for whom queens don't exist unless they're on rook 5.
14. ... g5 it was.
I'm reliably informed that at least a couple of S&BCC players actually burst out laughing on seeing the move.
Still, it led to 0-1.
Can we see the game then please.
Robin, too modestly IMHO, feels the game itself is not good enough to be published but was amused by this particular position.
I wonder if a position could be devised, lacking obvious forcing moves, captures and recaptures etc, in which Robin and I would select the same move.
I doubt it Justin.
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