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Chessville
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New to Gothic Chess? Check out the basics of
Gothic Chess,
While the masterpieces of Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni's are known to us from his fantastic labors, as we replay the "renaissance equivalents" through the chess games of Morphy, Tal, and Fischer, we see creativity of a completely different form. The attacks constructed by these chess renaissance geniuses seem to rain down as though without effort, as if they were "meant to be". Yet, as I observe one beautiful tactical combination after another stemming from (otherwise) seemingly tranquil waters, I cannot help but call to mind a quote from the great Michelangelo, the great laborer: "I saw an angel in the marble and I carved until I set him free." The parent position is the slab of marble, containing the grandiose tactic, yet undiscovered. While it takes a Morphy or a Tal or a Fischer to carve such beauty out of the stone of chess, in Gothic Chess, the slab is of a softer substrate, yet the finished product is equally outstanding. Even newcomers to the game can produce what I call "tactical artwork"; those outstanding combinations that seem to come from out of nowhere.
White has just castled in the Gothic Chess position shown above. Black appears to have two pieces making some form of threatening gestures in the neighborhood of the enemy king, but it looks like these pieces will be discharged with loss of tempi as White repels them in upcoming moves. In fact, with a quick glance you might expect Black to just castle queenside and engage in a long trench war involving assaults along opposing flanks. Instead, Black uncorks the shocker, sacrificing the archbishop on i4 with 11…Axh3+!! Usually we see a bishop capturing a knight in order to inflict damage to the pawn structure in the vicinity of the king, but not such an expensive piece as the archbishop!
White takes the archbishop, allowing a powerful chancellor check after 12. ixh3 Ci6+ 13. Kj1, shown in Figure 2. Black now has the poetic, yet disastrous, 13…Nxe3!!, quite unexpected. This move "forks" the queen and chancellor, usually an impossibility since a chancellor has the capability to make a knight's move. But here, if 14. Cxe3?? then Qxh3 mates! In moving the knight, the chancellor is left dangling as bait, and white is snared: 14. Axi6? (shown in Figure 3) Qxh3+ 15. Ki1 Nxg2 mate. An attractive tactical masterpiece suitable for framing.
Our next example shows us more tactical brushstrokes that can only be painted on a Gothic Chess canvas. The last game showcased an aggressive archbishop sacrifice, and this game features a passive sacrifice of a chancellor. As shown in Figure 4, White is under some pressure due to the compound attack on the j2 square. The knight on h3 seems to deal with this satisfactorily enough, but black undermines it simply with 15…Ci5! Taking the chancellor is absolutely hazardous to White's health, and the simple but effective 16. Af3 would hold the h2 square and save white from the mayhem to follow.
White missed the neat combination that wraps up this little piece of artwork. It was easy to see …Bxj2+ coming, but the mate with the archbishop smothering is something that does not happen in contemporary chess. 16. Nxi5? Bxj2+ 17. Kj1 and now we reach Figure 5. White believes Black must be prepared to deal with the "threat" of Nxh7+, but the mate is forced from here starting with 17…Nxh2+! This last move by Black would not be possible if 16. Af3 was played. 18. Rxh2 Ai3 and Black is mated, as shown in Figure 6. This gem featured brevity and economy, which would have made even the renaissance artists proud. Our final example is one of true artistry and style, and is perhaps the most famous combination in the Gothic Chess world today.
This game was played in the year 2000, and already we can demarcate this style of play from that of today. There were some lengthy move sequences ending in archbishops being fianchettoed to i2 and i7. Black had a tremendous pawn wedge comprised of landmines on c5-d6-e7-f6 and g5. The concept of the extended pawn center and the "flank" were still smudged lines in the minds of most players, and waiting strategic moves often were a precursor to tactical flurries like the one presented here. Intuitive moves were sprinkled throughout the game in a subtle fashion. Notice White can't play the "automatic move" that catches our eye almost at once, 24. Bxh8, since the chancellor would be hanging and captured by the queen. And notice how the Black chancellor is simultaneously making six capture threats! While most of these are idle threats, the hit on the queen is one that cannot be ignored. Even with all of the various pieces still en prise, White elected to add another log to the fire with 24. Nj4! This singular move hits the Black archbishop with the knight while revealing the fianchettoed white archbishop's threat against acquiring the f5 pawn with a very important check. 24…Cxd2? This loses, although the forced mate is not yet here. 24…Af4 pinning the queen offers better resistance. White has an overpowering attack starting with 25. Axf5+ Kj8. He can actually get away with snagging the rook with 26. Bxh8 since the chancellor cannot be captured, as 26…Qxc5 is met with an archbishop mate, 27. Ah7. White instead chose a path baiting black to react aggressively, and the result is a true work of art. 26. Nxh5 Qxh2?? and now the mate is forced. Just take a look at the next diagrams to observe what happens! White sacrifices both new Gothic Chess majors, the archbishop and the chancellor, to mate with just bishop and knight!
Stare at Figure 8 for a while. With c2 a veritable "hot spot", one's first reaction might be to keep the archbishop glued to that diagonal in defence of it. But White has 27. Axh6+!! Rxh6 28. Cxc8+! Bh8 leading to Figure 9. We note in passing that 28…Rh8, blocking the check of the chancellor with the rook, would lead to 29. Be3+ Qf4 30. Bxf4+ Bi7 with a sneaky checkmate exploiting the pinned bishop: 31. Cxh8. Figure 9 is a dangerous position to get yourself into. If it were Black to move, White would be checkmated in five moves with Cxc2+ Kb1 Cxb2+ Ka1 Cc2+ Kb1 Cb4+ Kc1 Qc2 mate. It took a great deal of bravery to let go of the defense of the c2 square in order to sculpt this piece of artwork. And now the long-awaited finish: 29. Cxh8+!! Rxh8 30. Be3+ Ki8 31. Nj6 mate. The elegant final mate with bishop and knight is shown in Figure 10.
For more Gothic Chess, see Gothic Chess Miniatures!
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