On April 29th 2020 I was giving a chess lesson via Skype to a Mancunian girl, Bryony Eccleston. Her mother had requested I teach something about endings so, over the previous couple of lessons, I had been working with her on pawn endings. On April 29th 2020 I tried to teach her about a rarely encountered tricky breakthrough in a pawn ending of the answering of...g5? with g4! by showing an example of it in a game from a tournament in Kiev 1978 between GM Hans Ree and IM Lyubomir Ftacnik.
(Although, since I did not have my signed copy of Ree´s The Human Comedy of Chess in front of me, I had not arranged the pawns on the queenside precisely as they were in the actual game.) Ftacnik thought he was winning and had played 56...g6-g5?? But he was stunned by the response of 57 g4!. All other moves lost for white. But 57 g4! won.
After an hour´s thought, Ftacnik continued 57...hxg4 58 h5 Ke6 59 Kf2 Kf7 60 Kg3 Kg7 61 Kxg4 Kh6 62 Kf5 Kxh5 63 Kxf6 g4 64 e5 g3 65 e6 g2 66 e7 g1=Q 67 e8=Q+ Kh4 68 Qh8+ Kg3 69 Qg8+ Kg2 70 Qxg1+ Kxg1 71 Ke5 Kf2 72 Kd5 Ke3 73 Kc6 Kd2 74 Kxb6 Kc2 75 Ka5 Kxb2 76 Kxa4 Kc3 77 Kb5 and black resigned.
Afterwards I would send Bryony a follow up e mail directing her to Entry 322 with its listing of all such surprises in pawn endings (via Entry 392) at one of my favourite websites: Tim Krabbé´s Chess Curiosities - https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess2/diary.htmIn Entry 321 https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess2/diary_17.htm Tim saw what he perhaps took to be the only example of it.
But in Entry 322, appended in August 2006, he lists seventeen other instances of the breakthrough. And then found that further researches turned up another ten. And then that still others had been occuring! In the great majority the opportunity to execute the decisive response had been overlooked. (Krabbé includes the one occasion when what he had thought to be the "winning chance" was missed but a subsequent analysis showed the chap on the receiving end would, even then, have been able to hold) - https://chess.stackexchange.com/questions/12287/does-white-really-have-a-win-in-this-pawn-ending-as-claimed-by-tim-krabb%c3%a9
One was in a game by a Dutchman called Welling where he thus defeated Soviet GM Eingorn. Welling later told Krabbé that he had only became aware of the idea through having read about it a few weeks earlier at Tim´s site (either by Entry 321 or 322) (!)
(btw, there is a correction by Welling of the false claim that it was also after an hour´s thought (don´t forget Ftacnik´s pondering for one hour after having been hit by Ree´s 57 g3-g4! that Eingorn resigned. Welling says this was not what happened, for Eingorn had resigned after much less time. But a misconception that he had thought for a full hour had occurred.
Or perhaps that´s just me looking for coincidences!)
When looking up his Entries on the Salvioli pawn break at Krabbé ´s site I had actually spotted a misspelling of the word "simple" as "simpe" at Entry 392 and only a few days later, on May 3rd 2020, I e mailed him about it.
At 10:31 A.M. two days later he responded -
Dear Mr Famous Chess Grandmaster,
Sorry about that, always happy with a good corrector.
Cheers,
Tim
On the evening of Monday May 5th 2020, the day when Krabbé had written back, I played this 3 minute game as Black Vs an opponent styling himself Terminator 1976 at the www.li.chess site -
1 e4 e5 2 c3 Nc6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 d4 d5 5 exd5 Nxd5 6 Qa4 exd4 7 Nxd4 Bd7 8 Bb5 Nxd4 9 Bxd7+ Qxd7 10 Qxd4 Qe6+ 11 Be3 Nxe3 12 Qxe3 Qxe3+ 13 fxe3 Bc5 14 e4 0-0-0 15 Nd2 Rd3 16 0-0-0 Re8 17 Rhe1 Be3 18 Kc2 Rxd2+ 19 Rxd2 Bxd2 20 Kxd2 Re6 21 Re3 f6 22 Kd3 Kd7 23 Kd4 Ke7 24 Rd3 Rd6+ 25 Ke3 Rxd3+ 26 Kxd3 Kd6 27 g3 Ke5 28 Ke3 c5 29 c4 b6 30 b3 a5 31 a3 h5 ...and my opponent played 32 h3 ...
Had he played 32 h4 instead then my intent was to follow up with what I, at first, thought to be the "winning" reply of 32...g5
But almost immediately I spotted that this would have made me, according to Krabbé , only the fortieth (or so) mug in all history to qualify for his list (in recorded instances since Salvioli´s study of 1888, at any rate) to fall for the now "simple" and winning response of 33 g4!!
And the very first such mug since 2012.
When looking up his Entries on the Salvioli pawn break at Krabbé ´s site I had actually spotted a misspelling of the word "simple" as "simpe" at Entry 392 and only a few days later, on May 3rd 2020, I e mailed him about it.
At 10:31 A.M. two days later he responded -
Dear Mr Famous Chess Grandmaster,
Sorry about that, always happy with a good corrector.
Cheers,
Tim
On the evening of Monday May 5th 2020, the day when Krabbé had written back, I played this 3 minute game as Black Vs an opponent styling himself Terminator 1976 at the www.li.chess site -
1 e4 e5 2 c3 Nc6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 d4 d5 5 exd5 Nxd5 6 Qa4 exd4 7 Nxd4 Bd7 8 Bb5 Nxd4 9 Bxd7+ Qxd7 10 Qxd4 Qe6+ 11 Be3 Nxe3 12 Qxe3 Qxe3+ 13 fxe3 Bc5 14 e4 0-0-0 15 Nd2 Rd3 16 0-0-0 Re8 17 Rhe1 Be3 18 Kc2 Rxd2+ 19 Rxd2 Bxd2 20 Kxd2 Re6 21 Re3 f6 22 Kd3 Kd7 23 Kd4 Ke7 24 Rd3 Rd6+ 25 Ke3 Rxd3+ 26 Kxd3 Kd6 27 g3 Ke5 28 Ke3 c5 29 c4 b6 30 b3 a5 31 a3 h5 ...and my opponent played 32 h3 ...
Had he played 32 h4 instead then my intent was to follow up with what I, at first, thought to be the "winning" reply of 32...g5
And the very first such mug since 2012.
(btw, and apropos my opponent´s chosen handle, the film Terminator Six: Dark Fate had been released in 2019 and a scene from it was actually shot less than 200 metres from my front door!)
I gave my lesson to a girl. (Medina´s opponent in Entry 392 was also female.) And when my wife noticed that the ratio of males to females in the chess world is twenty-five to one she had said she regretted not having played chess when she was younger.)
Also on May 2nd 2020, Bryony´s mother, Ruth, had already sent me some games Bryony had played since her last lesson with me of April 29th 2020, one of which was in a simul given by Tim Wall. I had responded to say little more than that Tim featured in two examples of coincidence at my Blog: Entries (75) and (154).
I had been apt to tell Bryony that I always learned from any pupil I taught.
I gave my lesson to a girl. (Medina´s opponent in Entry 392 was also female.) And when my wife noticed that the ratio of males to females in the chess world is twenty-five to one she had said she regretted not having played chess when she was younger.)
Also on May 2nd 2020, Bryony´s mother, Ruth, had already sent me some games Bryony had played since her last lesson with me of April 29th 2020, one of which was in a simul given by Tim Wall. I had responded to say little more than that Tim featured in two examples of coincidence at my Blog: Entries (75) and (154).
I had been apt to tell Bryony that I always learned from any pupil I taught.
