Monday, March 30, 2009

What Happened Next? IX


Position after Black's 37th move, and white to move.

What happened next?

PS. Those who enjoy this series may also wish to check out Jack Rudd's teaser (solution here).

25 comments:

Jonathan B said...

Who are the players?

Will said...

Qa1 followed by a trip to the bathroom after Kxa1

Anonymous said...

White is Nigel Davies. His mobile phone rings. The arbiter rushes over and realises that the ringtone is a piece of elevator music by Ray Lynch. He sits arm-in-arm with Nige listening to the syruppy chimes while the tournament hall rapidly empties. White's flag falls.

DR

Anonymous said...

The police arrived

(a) to arrest White for the theft of the Black pieces; but ended up

(b) fining White for his attempts at an artistic finish from the diagram:

38. Qa1+ Kxa1
39. Bc4#

by which time White had lost on time and

(c) the BCF rulebook covering such incidents went up in flames (and then out the window).

Obviously. :-)

seani

Anonymous said...

John Healy sent the game and position to every chess publication in the English-speaking world, claiming he'd just flattened Anand ... and everyone believed him.

Alu Chin

Jonathan B said...

DR - actually David Robertson or just pretending?

Alu,

why does the John Healy issue upset you so?

Unknown said...

Just pretending to be myself

Anonymous said...

I'm not at all upset, I'm just bored at "work". But if you persist in highlighting positions from (allegedly) his games, you might be interested in the occasional good move played by some more weak club players I know.

But then, what would be the point?

Alu Chin

ejh said...

And do you mean this game or another?

(And did he? And did they?)

Tom Chivers said...

No-one's near the right answer or players.

Who the players are is a secret! If I told you (and especially if I told you as well the year in which they played) then the clue would be too good :) Which in itself, I suppose, is a clue, but just not a very good one.

ejh said...

Might be good enough if I speculate that that isn't a queen that's being represented by the queen symbol. Nor the bishop a bishop.

ejh said...

Alu - I think many people are aware that Healy was neither a strong player nor an entirely reliable witness. However, he wrote what many people have found an interesting and moving book, and as for his chess - if we were only interested in strong players here, we would have to write rather less about ourselves.

But, you know, elephants and gnats.

Tom Chivers said...

The queen is a queen, the bishop a bishop, and modern rules of chess apply . . .

Anonymous said...

White resigned because his opponent was a military dictator.

anonemouse

Tom Chivers said...

It's good, but it's not right.

Jonathan B said...

Alu,

I think you've missed the point of the Grass Arena series.

Be that as it may, you are welcome not to read them, or any other posts on this blogfor that matter.

Anonymous said...

Sooo, 16 comments and nobody even seems interested in the right answer, let alone actually getting anywhere near it.... :-)

It was, in fact, from one of the earliest World Computer Championships (early 70s?) And what happened from here is that the machine "playing" the white pieces actually managed to LOSE from the diagrammed position!!

I am NOT making this up ;-)

Jack Rudd said...

Ah yes, this one.

Anonymous said...

38.Kc1 f5 39.Kc2 f4 40.Kc1 g4 41.Kc2 f3 42.Kc1 fxg2 43.Kc2 gxh1=Q 44.Kc1 Qxf1+ 45.Kd2 Qxf2+ 46.Kc1 Qg1+ 47.Kc2 Qxh2+ 48.Kc1 Qh1+ 49.Kc2 Qb1+ 50.Kd2 g3 51.Qc4+ Qb3 52.Qxb3+ Kxb3 53.e4 Kxb4 54.e5 g2 0-1 COKO III-GENIE COKO 1971 US Computer Championships

Tom Chivers said...

Oh anonymous! How you've spoiled my fun. Indeed you're right. The full story of the solution will be published on Monday next week.

Richard James said...

Only just noticed this but recognized immediately. Did you get it from The (Even More) Complete Chess Addict?

Tom Chivers said...

Nope - from a book about computer chess.

Anonymous said...

The game in question is from a book by Alex (?) Bell regarding Computer Chess in its early days before Fritz, Rybka and alike came along and beat the GMs!!

I remember reading that at my Uni library many many moons ago!

Jonathan B said...

We have taken much from Richard James' work in the past.

E.g. the practice of naming a series of posts with Roman Numerals (often abbreviating to initials e.g. WHN? IX) was inspired* by the Fox and James column in Chess magazine.







* read: "stolen from"

ejh said...

That's not the Alex Bell who use to teach at UNN?