5/15/2022 – Unashamed ultra-violence. Jon Speelman continues to share findings from his bookshelf, and today explores Irving Chernev’s “The 1000 best short games of chess”, a collection of miniatures first published in 1957. Speelman adds notes to selected games from the collection of thud and blunder.
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Thud and blunder
[Note that Jon Speelman also looks at the content of the article in video format, here embedded at the end of the article.]
After A fistful of chestnuts a fortnight ago, it was fairly inevitable — even though I’m not personally greatly enamoured of occidental cinematographic pasta — that we’d move on to A few chestnuts more.
With this in mind, I moved to the right along my bookshelf, away from Euwe and Kramer and Suetin, and then my eye happened to travel up a shelf to where I found Irving Chernev’s The 1000 best short games of chess.
After verifying that 1000(!) is not a misprint, it was obvious that this collection, first published in 1957, would be bigger on quantity than quality. But scanning through (looking at the pictures — or diagrams if you want to be technical) I did find lots of enjoyable games, if a paucity of credible variations before the violent dénouements, and I’m looking at a few of these today, all from the first 150 of the 1000.
Before that, a small moment from the recent tournament in Bucharest, which vividly highlights in a microcosm the relationship between material and activity on the chessboard.
So vs. Rapport - Bucharest (2022)
White to play
A strong player should see immediately that White should retreat Bd3 and that dxe3 then would be close to suicidal (in fact, it’s utterly fatal). But I’m interested, partly from a teaching perspective, in how strong a player needs to be for this to be obvious? Rapport’s clever reply of ...e5-4 then diffused the position immediately.
We move on to Chernev’s mega-collection of thud and blunder. I’ve given the game numbers in the book, in case anybody has a copy, and added some notes as well.
In this position, which has occured a number of times before, White
actually can't recapture on d4, but in any case it's obviously much better to
retreat the bishop.15.Bd3!I found eight instances of this in the database
I usually use, but no doubt there are more. Rapport now came up with an
interesting idea to take the sting out of the position.15.Qxd4?Rd815.Rxd4?e515...e5!In my databse I found four other moves, but this is
much the simplest, sacrificing a fairly unimportant pawn to limit White to
just a symbolic advantage. Rapport took about seven minutes to play it so it's
quite possible that he found it at the board.15...dxe3?would be
ridiculous since White gets a huge attack. Indeed after the simple recapture
Bxe3 engines give it as winning. I've given one variation to show the sort of
carnage which could follow.16.Bxe3Be717.Bg5h617...h518.Rac1Qa519.b4Qxb420.Bxf6gxf620...Bxf621.Qxb420...Qxh421.Bxh421.Qxh5f522.Rc4Qb323.Rg4+fxg424.Qh7#17...Rd818.Rac1Qb619.Be319.Bxh7+Nxh720.Bxe7Rd521.Ne5Qxb222.Nc4Qb323.Ne3!19...Qxb220.Bxh7+Kf818.Bxh6gxh619.Qxh6e520.Ng5e421.Bxe4Qf422.Bh7+Kh823.Bg6+Kg824.Rd8Qxg524...Be625.Rxa8Qxf2+26.Kh1Bd526...Rxa827.Bh7+Kh828.Bf5+Kg829.Bxe6Rf830.Qg6+Kh831.Nxf7+Rxf732.Bxf727.Bh7+Kh828.Be4+Kg829.Bxd524...Bxd825.Bh7+Kh826.Qxf8+24...Rxd825.Bxf7#24...Qxf2+25.Kh124...Qxh2+25.Qxh2Rxd826.Qh625.Rxf8+Bxf826.Qxg516.exd4e4!17.Bxe4Nxe418.Qxe4Qd7!This very nice move is
ready to meet Ng5 with Bf5, and also prepares Re8.19.Bf419.Ng5Qf520.f3!is suggested by Stockfish and perhaps gives an edge.f620...h621.Qxf5Bxf522.Ne421.g421.Qxf5Bxf522.Ne4Rfd821...Qxe422.Nxe419...Re820.Ne5Qf521.Qxf5Bxf522.Nd3Bxd323.Bxd6Bc2
White does have
an extra pawn, but it's easily blockaded, and he has no realistic winning
chances. Rapport drew without difficulty:24.Rdc1Rac825.a5f626.f3Bb327.Rxc8Rxc828.Re1Ba429.Ba3Re830.Rxe8+Bxe831.d5Bf732.d6Be833.Kf2Kf734.Ke3Ke635.Kd4Bc636.h4h537.Bb4Bb538.g4hxg439.fxg4Be240.Kc5Kd7!40...Bxg441.Kb6Kd742.Kxb7Be243.h5Bb544.Bc544.Bc3Be245.b444...Be245.b4Bd346.Bd4Kxd647.Bc5+47.Bxf6?actually
loses.47...Kd748.Bf8Be249.Bxg7Bxh550.Kxa6Kc8=41.Kb6Kc842.d7+Kxd743.Kxb7Ke644.Bc3Kf745.b4Bb546.h5Be247.Bb2Bb548.Bc3Be249.Bd2Bb550.Bc3Be2
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Jonathan SpeelmanJonathan Speelman, born in 1956, studied mathematics but became a professional chess player in 1977. He was a member of the English Olympic team from 1980–2006 and three times British Champion. He played twice in Candidates Tournaments, reaching the semi-final in 1989. He twice seconded a World Championship challenger: Nigel Short and then Viswanathan Anand against Garry Kasparov in London 1993 and New York 1995.
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After A fistful of chestnuts a fortnight ago, it was fairly inevitable — even though I’m not personally greatly enamoured of occidental cinematographic pasta — that we’d move on to A few chestnuts more.
