Counterplay A sour Dutch treat?
In Bruce Pandolfini’s normally excellent “Solitaire Chess” column, I have noticed a couple of errors, the most striking of which occurs in the analysis to White’s 14th move (“Dutch Treat,” September 2011). White played 14. Be6+, certainly a reasonable move, and after 14. ... Kh8 15. Qe2 White won a nice game. But in the notes, Pandolfini only gives 2 points part credit for the (significantly stronger) sacrifice 14. Bxg6 hxg6 15. Qxg6+, writ- ing, “The queen, by herself, can effect a draw ... But there is probably no more attack. ... Accept 1 bonus point if you realized this.”
rsn-wq-trk+ zpp+-vl-+- -+pzp-+Q+ +-+-zP-+- -+P+-+-+ +-+-+-zP- PzP-+-zP-zP tR-vL-+RmK-
After 15. Qxg6 In fact I think White should take penalty
points for stopping his analysis at this point, as there is a forced win to be had: 15. ... Kh8 16. Qh5+! (Pandolfini only analyzes 16. Qh6+, which wins by repeating the position and then playing Qh5, but this move is necessary at some point, as well as
16. Bh6 Rg8 17. Qh5 Qe8 which also clearly favors White but does not represent an immediate winning attempt like my main line) 16. ... Kg8 (or 16. ... Kg7 17. Bh6+, where 17. ... Kg8 gets mated in two and the other king moves lose the rook with check while White continues the assault) 17. Bh6 (threatening mate in two) after which there is no defense that does not lose a lot of material. The only real try is 17. ... Bf6 (17. ... Qe8 gets mated by 18. Qg4+) and White just captures on f6, 18. exf6, after which Black is totally lost, much more so than in the game continuation.
Christopher Girardo via e-mail
Simple but profound? There are an unlimited number of chess
variants we can imagine—the Fischer Ran- dom position is just one, but the one rule’s change that may impact the royal game the least is to give the second player, the choice of color i.e. even though he/she moves second, he/she can have the white pieces so that the first move goes to the player with the black pieces. For tournaments the player who moves
first is identified on the chart with the player of the black pieces getting to choose the color. To a computer it won’t matter, but I predict that a player who moves second with the white pieces will play more aggres- sively. It might make for an interesting psychology experiment.
Richard Moody, Jr. Schoharie, New York
Corrections
In the January 2012 issue, “USCF Affairs,” IM John Donaldson has replaced John McCrary as the chair for the Professional Players Health and Benefits committee. Donald- son’s e-mail is
imwjd@aol.com. Donaldson is also chair of the Awards committee using the same e- mail address. Further, in the same committee list, there was a typo in Rules committee chair David Kuhns’ e-mail address, which should read
e4e5@hughes.net.
In the December 2011 issue, ICCM Bart Gibbons’ article “Retreat To The First Rank ... And Win!” incorrectly stated that the 1957 U.S. Champi- onship game Bobby Fischer/James Sherwin was included in Fischer’s My 60 Memorable Games. Thanks to many readers for pointing out that it was actually their game three months earlier at the New Jersey Open that Fischer used in his book.
In the December 2011 “Endgame Lab,” the game Coen Zuidema/Pal Benko was incorrectly identified as being played at the 1972 U.S. Cham- pionship. It was played at Skopje, Yugoslavia, at the 20th Olympiad. Thank you to IM Anthony Saidy and Howard Sample for the correction.
In the November 2011 issue, reader Vladimir Zelevinsky caught two errors: In “Chess to Enjoy,” the play- ers’ cities were reversed; Vladimir Lyavdansky played for Leningrad and Anatoly Volovich played for Moscow. Also, in our Reshevsky cover story, we listed the 1948 World Championship (The Hague - Moscow) as a “quadruple,” but the event had five rather than four rounds.
Send your letters to
letters@uschess.org. If Chess Life publishes your letter, you will be sent a copy of Test, Evaluate and Improve Your Chess (see ad to the left). Letters are subject to editing for content and length.
6 Chess Life — February 2012
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