Gilmoy Member since May-15-05 · Last seen Sep-07-08 Since 2001, I've play skittles chess (5 minutes + 3 seconds) on pogo.com. I always make my own table, and sit down as Black (so my opponent starts with White). My username starts with "Gilmoy", and the remaining 10 letters is whatever inane or topical joke strikes my fancy. I play from newbie (1500) to red dot (2001+), then retire the account and make a new one; I have over 70 (most of which have long since expired). My best performance was 71-4; my worst take well over 400 games. Pogo e-mails you a PGN of your game on conclusion (if you ask; I always do), so I have them all archived. I have no offical rating -- I've never played in a tournament (nor even seen one in person). My schedule never permitted it, and I suspect I lack the patience for tourney time controls. I learned the moves almost 30 years ago, from books -- my favorite was "The Kinghunt in Chess", which I haven't seen since. I was hooked on the beauty of chess -- I knew Immortal, Evergreen, Rubinstein's, Fischer's GotC, etc. I didn't know how to actually *play*, though. I played with friends in middle school, and had no clue. Later, I briefly (like, twice each :) attended the chess clubs at Caltech, U.Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), and U.Wisconsin-Milwaukee, but they both preferred flat 5 minutes, and I can't think that fast -- I need the 3 seconds. In late 2006, I started solving chessgames.com's Puzzle of the Day. After a few months of that, my play on pogo has gotten somewhat more vicious, and much more fun. I look for piece sacs that I never would have considered before. My opponents have declined about 80% of them -- even the unsound ones ^_^ I prefer Ruy/Spanish as White or Black. As Black, I trust my QGD against 1.d4, but I dabble in KID, QID, or Nimzo-Indian -- usually whichever one I saw most recently on chessgames.com at super-GM level :) I used to lose to King's Gambit more than any other opening by White, until I got mad, Googled it, printed out the first 3 hits, and did some homework. Since then, my KGA is about 300-5-15 (W-D-L) as Black. I like watching soccer and volleyball -- SopCast fits on the right half of my screen while I'm playing chess on the left side :) I prefer informative TV like Discovery, History, A&E;, piano/violin concertos, Broadway musicals, animals of all kinds, and YouTube videos thereof. I found a male praying mantis (~3 cm long) in my dorm hallway once, brought it to my lab in a Tupperware, and took it hunting for mosquitoes every few hours for a week. Mantid poop looks like compressed mosquito shell fragments. I'm also lead (well, only) programmer for Sanctum (www.playsanctum.com), which presumably I do when I'm not playing chess. No, you can't quite fit an 8x8 chessboard onto Sanctum's board -- I came close, but a1 and h8 get clipped off. In real life, I have feathers and a beak. Chirp chirp!

Gilmoy has kibitzed 549 times to chessgames   [more...]

Aug-31-08 I Zugic vs Nakamura, 2008    Gilmoy: Laff. 11..g5 12..h5 before castling looks like the silly stuff Nakamura gets away with in ICC bullet games.      Aug-28-08 Kramnik vs E Alekseev, 2008    Gilmoy: <Shams: 8.b4> cxb4 9.axb4 Nxb4 10.Ba3 N(a6,c6) 11.N(b5,e4) recovers the pawn (or gives Black more rope). The database shows +3=0-0 in games where Black took the pawn, and about 10 others where Black declined it, usually 8..O-O. Alekseev's 8..h6 diverges. My initial guess was ...      Aug-25-08 N Diamantopoulos vs K Goutioudi, 2001   Gilmoy: <MaltaCross>: It's a book line, and it worked well enough (Black lost later on). 6..e6 lets Black's KB out, so it's only a(n offer of a) Q trade, which usually lets Black equalize. After 9..Nxd8 (which recovers his piece and saves his N in one move), material is even, White's K      Aug-23-08 J Manion vs Akopian, 1994    Gilmoy: I took a different approach to this puzzle -- mostly due to external time constraints. I saw the 30..(N,B)xg3 complex right away, thought it too obvious, and didn't pursue either one further. (Plenty of time to return to them if Plan C doesn't pan out.) What caught my eye was the ...      Aug-18-08 N Davies vs M Surtees, 2007   Gilmoy: 7..exf3? <French Defense meets Blackmar-Diemer?> 16.Ne5! <canonical double on f7> You know what they say about 5-on-2 K-side attacks: sac, sac, <3-on-0>, mate.      Aug-18-08 C Elison vs Nimzowitsch, 1915    Gilmoy: Elison at 9: I doubled his pawns, yaay!! Elison at 13: He weakens his pawns, yaay! Elison at 22: How are both of his Rooks active, while mine remain buried? Elison at 27: When did his Rook get to be so much better than mine? Elison at 34: Never any space -- never a square for my ...      Aug-18-08 A Nickel vs W Class, 1992    Gilmoy: 26.Nd5 is a clever theme -- it's a special case of a <deflection sac>, whose sole purpose is to lure Black's Be6 onto d5, where it can be captured. Perhaps we could call it a <flytrap sac>? A <come-hither>? <Fatal attraction>? Once Black loses the Bg8 defense,      Aug-17-08 N Pogonina vs E Paehtz, 2007    Gilmoy: 8.d5 isn't anything to fear -- 8..Ne7 transposes to a KID, and Black is OK. Smyslov chose 12..b5 with atypical KID Q-side pressure, and suddenly Black had more piece activity. Paehtz's 8..Nb8 seems slightly worse -- hoping for 9.Bxd7 Nxd7 improving Black's piece flow. White messes ...      Aug-17-08 Van Wely vs Piket, 1996    Gilmoy: Took me about 15 seconds to converge on 25..Nd4. First glance: White has arranged an impressive heavy-piece attack on ... where Black's K isn't. That's the Van Wely we know and love :) <"Data ... TRUST me" -- Picard> Second glance: White's K is lonely. Black wants Rh6-Qh3, and      Aug-12-08 G A Thomas vs Colle, 1925    Gilmoy: <al wazir: Half of Thomas's first 24 moves were N moves ... better use of the tempi?> I noticed that, too. GMs move their Ns in elegant little triangles to get them to good outposts -- this is a key advanced skill that separates GMs from lesser Ms. But Thomas takes it too far ...

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Aug-08-07    dzechiel: Gilmoy! Tell us something about yourself. Aug-11-07    Gilmoy: I'll dig up some Puzzle-worthy positions from my archives. Here's my most recent one -- fun because I planned it about five moves in advance. Pogo assigns a purple dot to 1751-2000 ratings, so my foe was a low purple dot. I must have bought tomatoes and lettuce-like greens earlier that week. [Site "Pogo"] [Date "2007.07.29"] [White "GilmoyEatsASalad" 1922] [Black "Tenor89P" 1795] [Result "1-0"] 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Bb3 (Winboard comes with a PGN of Fischer's 60 Memorable Games, where he uses this idea often) Bc5 8.Be3 Bxd4 9.Bxd4 Nxd4 10.Qxd4 O-O 11.O-O-O (I used to lack the nerve to castle long vs. Sicilian, but chessgames.com's archives has helped much -- esp. Krupeichik always did) Qa5 12.e5 (More to say about this after you guys solve it :) Ne8 13.Kb1 Nc7 14.Qf4 b5 15.Ne4 Bb7 Puzzle (Wednesday-level, maybe) click for larger view White to play: 16.? Aug-11-07    Gilmoy: [Non-Puzzle Interlude] This game was one of the first ones where I played in wacky-sac mode from start to finish. My opponent was a high orange dot (1701 Pogo rating -- he was 1706 before our 1st game, this was the 2nd, he was mad). That's high enough that he should know better than to step into a Q-K pin. Etymology: On Jan 5, 2003, Trey Junkin of New York Giants botched two long snaps on last-minute(s) field goal attempts, allowing San Francisco 49ers to escape with an NFL wild-card win. [Site "pogo.com"] [Date "2003.01.09"] [White "GilmoyLongSnap"] [Black "sakabaka_"] [Result "1-0"] 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nf3 (I like to get in c4 before Nc3) Qe6+ 4.Be2 f6? (With one move he manages to congest both wings) 5.O-O Nc6 6.Re1 Qd7 7.d4 a6 8.c4 e6 9.Nc3 (My preferred setup against Center Counter) Bb4 10.a3 Ba5? (Invites further jail time) 11.b4 Bb6 12.d5 (I think I was looking at c5 Bc4 etc.) Ne5 13.Nxe5 fxe5 14.dxe6 Qxe6 15.c5 Ba7 16.Bf4 (17.Bh5+ of course) Ne7 (To break the coming pin on e) 17.Bh5+ g6 18.Rxe5 Qc4 (I'm forked) 19.Nd5 O-O (Here I missed 20.Be2 winning his Q -- I just saw it now while typing this :) 20.Nxe7+ Kh8 (What if Kg7?) 21.Nxg6+ hxg6 22.Bxg6 Qxf4 23.Qh5+ Kg7 (I'm blind, I saw only Kg8 24.Qh7#. Now Black threatens Qxf2+) 24.Qh7+ Kf6 (Indirectly guards my weak back rank) 25.Rae1 click for larger view This is surely a great way to be a piece "down" -- every White piece is in the hunt, the Black K is flushed, naked, and has no move, and two Black pieces are in jail on the Q-side. And actually, I have 3 pawns for my B. 25..Bg4? 26.Bc2 (Blind again -- I ran my clock down, made this move out of desperation, and still didn't realize how strong it was. It's a mate fork, g6 and e7 -- Black can't stop both) Rg8 27.Qe7# 1-0 And pogo's winner music *startled* me. I wish I could say I calculated the whole thing. 26..Qxe5 27.Qg6+ Ke7 nets Q+B for R, and White mates anyways. Aug-12-07    Gilmoy: While goofing off during Sanctum development, I doodled a "storyboard" puzzle called <The Alabaster Flabbergaster>, consisting of a Sanctum board image http://beta.sanctum.nioga.net/image... and a short story http://forums.nioga.net/viewtopic.p... (somewhat farcical). Half the puzzle was (or "is"; it's still running :) to identify the non-Sanctum inspiration for the image -- so posting it here is a bit, ahem, ironic. Bonus for chessgames.com readers: If you do solve the puzzle, send me e-mail at gilmoy@nioga.net and we'll give you a <free ranked Sanctum account> (and your choice from the prize fund)! Of course, you might need a brief primer on Sanctum, to understand what you're seeing. 1. Sanctum is a 2-player collectible card game, with a board and minions. 2. Each player picks 1 of 12 houses. This game is Death (south) vs. Justice (north). The win condition is to walk one of your recruit groups into the enemy Sanctum, and have it survive for 1 turn. There's usually terrain and towns in the center that make it interesting, but I wiped them all out to fit my story. 3. The Blue player (south, with little blue dots) has chosen Death house, whose Hero leader is Khobai, a Keeper in regal purple (fictitious race loosely based on Anubis-like dogheaded humanoids from Ancient Egypt) http://sanctum.nioga.net/cards/card.... He's standing in his Sanctum (square with big skull figure in bottom center). 4. Khobai's other minions include: two Master Vampires in black cloaks http://sanctum.nioga.net/cards/card... (they're "Sir Vampire" and "Nandra" in the story), five individual Undead Warriors from Legion of the Dead http://sanctum.nioga.net/cards/card... (white skeletons), and one Fury (very tall green female ghost) http://sanctum.nioga.net/cards/card.... (The Legion and Furies spells actually create groups of 8 and 3, respectively, so I had to laboriously kill off the other N-1 in each group, haha.) 5. The Red player (north, curently with white dots; see #7) has chosen Justice house, whose leader is Dracha, a Gargoyle (huge winged humanoids made of gray stone) http://sanctum.nioga.net/cards/card.... He's at the upper right corner, pretty far from both Sancta. 6. Dracha's teammates are two black Obsidian Dragons http://sanctum.nioga.net/cards/card..., one white Unicorn http://sanctum.nioga.net/cards/card..., and five flesh-tone Golems http://sanctum.nioga.net/cards/card..., all with pretty self-explanatory art. 7. In the left sidebar, you can see some spells on the globe. The Armistice prevents all combats for 3 turns; I needed that to get the north player to show up with one consistent dot color. Monsters are normally computer-controlled; to create the storyboard (using in-game means only, we don't have a board editor), I had to cast a control-stealing spell on each Red monster group (which changes them to blue dot), then walk them into place, pin them there, and cast another spell to change them to neutral (white dot). Adjacent neutral groups would fight each other, hence the Armistice. To recap: E-mail your solution to gilmoy@nioga.net. (Posting here doesn't count.) Nov-28-07    timhortons: i like youre explanation on carlsen-kamsky blitzmatch...carlsen did treat the robatcsh like sicilian dragon but paid dearly for it...i come across youre kibitz after i search the(database)defense employed against me by my opponenet at fics..he give a move 1...b6 i slowly set up my pieces on fischer sozin or dragon i really dont know the difference between the two and engage him in the pattern i know Dec-25-07    Gilmoy: I was recently reminded of the double exchange sac theme from some of Petrosian's games. More recently, there's the spectacular Topalov vs Aronian, 2006, where Topalov gets two connected passed pawns. Another amusing mid-level tactical pattern is what I loosely call "Oh, but I insist". I got a chance to weave these two together. Rooks can be very insistent! [Site "Pogo"] [Date "2007.08.31"] [White "GilmoyTailDogWag"] [Black "isrealite63"] [Result "1-0"] (aband.) 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Bd6? 3.Bc4 b6 4.O-O Bb7 5.Re1 Qf6? 6.c3 Nc6 7.d4 O-O-O? <Drops an exchange> 8.Bg5 Qg6 9.Bxd8 Nxd8 10.dxe5 Be7 11.Bd5 c6 12.Bb3 Nh6 13.Nbd2 Ng4 14.Nc4 Bc5 15.Re2 Qh6 16.Nd6+ Bxd6 17.Qxd6 Qxd6 18.exd6 f6 19.h3 Ne5 20.Rd1 Nxf3+ 21.gxf3 h5 22.f4 Rh8e8 23.e5 c5 click for larger view 24.exf6! <Wins a pawn :) It's not a Rook sac, only a slow-motion exchange. 24..Rxe2 25.fxg7 Re8[] 26.g8=Q and I get my Rook back.> 24..Ne6 <Here I recognize the Topalov-Aronian theme.> click for larger view 25.Rxe6! <"Oh, but ..."> dxe6 26.fxg7 Bd5 click for larger view 27.Rxd5! <"... I insist" [on controlling g8]> exd5 28.Bxd5 Kd7 29.g8=Q Rxg8+ 30.Bxg8 Kxd6 <White emerges up B+2P. Black has no stomach for the rest of the game> 31.Kg2 h4 32.Kf3 Ke7 33.Kg4 Kf6 34.Kxh4 Kf5 35.Kg3 a5 36.Bh7+ Kf6 37.Kg4 c4 38.h4 <aband.> 1-0 <Black pulls the plug instead of resigning -- an online von Bardeleben.> Jan-07-08    Gilmoy: Just a few hours earlier today, I enjoyed Rublevsky's hilarious Knight-pair maneuvers Rublevsky vs Grigoriants, 2007 -- listen closely, and you can hear <coconuts from Spamalot>. Ironically, in my very next online game, I got a chance to pay (poor) homage to it. [Site "Pogo"] [Date "2008.01.07"] [Result "0-1"] [White "gstar6666"] [Black "GilmoyBowlsARose"] <Etymology: I attended U. Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) for graduate school, and they just played in the Rose Bowl. Alas, we were not close to USC's plane of existence.> 1.d4 Nf6 2.e3 g6 3.c3 Bg7 4.Bd3 O-O 5.Nd2 d6 <Colle System vs. King's Indian? Okay ...> 6.Nf3 c5 7.a4 Bg4 8.h3 Bd7 9.O-O e6 10.Re1 Nc6 11.Qc2 a6 <We both stumble around. I vaguely plan a Q-side pawn expansion -- in KID, haha.> 12.Rd1? Qb8 13.dxc5 dxc5 14.e4 e5 <White has about five pieces in jail.> 15.b3 Be6 16.Ba3 b6 17.c4 Rd8 18.Ng5? <He gifts me a huge outpost:> Nd4 19.Qb1 Qd6 20.Nxe6 Qxe6 21.Bc2 click for larger view <White has impressively arranged all six of his pieces in the lower left quadrant. It seems to beg for a K-side attack. I see Ne2+ Kf1 -- blah by itself. I see the K-side swing Nh5-Nf4 to get the canonical Ruy outpost N (with colors reversed) -- and my Q is ideally placed to discourage g3. I see that these plans dovetail, I recall Rublevsky's game, I <hear the coconuts>, my PotD training kicks in -- and I see the sac --> 21..Nh5 22.Bb2 Ne2+ 23.Kf1 Nhf4 24.Nf3?? click for larger view <Given that I'd planned the sac <since 21 :)>, this must be nearly White's worst possible move.> 24..Nxg2 <Take your pick! She loves me, she loves me not ...> click for larger view 25.Kxg2? Nf4+ <I saw that this fork recovers a 2nd pawn and injects my Q. Now his 24th is exposed as doubly killing: I recover my piece immediately, and I now own the d-file, so it's a wall to his K.> 26.Kf1 Qxh3+ <... but I love her regardless :) 26.Kg1 Qxh3 27.Ne1 Ne2#.> 27.Ke1 Qxf3 <Mate fork, e2 and h1.> 28.Rxd8+ Rxd8 29.Bd1 Qh1# 0-1 <I never did form a clear plan against 25.Kxe2 -- I'm pretty sure Qxh3 wins anyways.> Feb-06-08    johnlspouge: Hi, <Gilmoy>! I am the kind of guy you probably hate to have at the party, so if you want to delete this post, do so with my blessing. I found your game [Site "Pogo"] [Date "2008.01.07"] [Result "0-1"] [White "gstar6666"] [Black "GilmoyBowlsARose"] very interesting, and wondered about your sacrifice 24...Nxg2. Toga II 1.3.1 evaluated it as a draw by repetition (value is to White) [ply 13/47, time 00:14, value 0.00] 2.Kxe2 Nf4+ 3.Ke3 Qxh3 4.Rxd8+ Rxd8 5.Qh1 Ng2+ 6.Ke2 Nf4+ 7.Ke3 According to Toga, the best move is to resume residence at d4: [ply 14/44, time 00:51, value -0.63] 1...Nd4 2.Bxd4 exd4 3.Bd3 a5 4.Re1 Be5 5.Kg1 Re8 6.Ra2 Qf6 7.h4 The sacrifice 24...Nxg2 was, however, more interesting than the computer line. Feb-07-08    Gilmoy: Thanks for the comments. I haven't analyzed any of my games with a program (yet). Some sacs I can calculate all the way to a win or advantage, others I just play on about 10-30 seconds of intuition. I have an "advantage" in knowing that my opponents are amateurs, too, and they can get rattled into mistakes. This was one of the intuitive sacs -- I saw about 2 pawns + congestion, and felt that would be enough. I didn't see White's Qh1 defense. Sometimes, I sac on intuition thinking it unsound, my opponent (eventually) resigns, and much later (months!), I realize that it <was> sound, and wins by force. Think of it as a fringe benefit of being aggressive -- sometimes it wins for you <because> your opponent is smarter! Feb-12-08    johnlspouge: Hi, <Gilmoy>! I put instructions on my site for downloading chess freeware for analyzing games. I find it very helpful to turn Toga II 1.3.1 loose on my games, move by move, to see exactly where I could have played better. It's a little like being able to ask a perfect chessplayer what you should have done in a game. As <znprdx> points out, however, there are some things that remain beyond analysis, or at least beyond a player's ability to analyze, no matter how good the player. Sometimes, you just have to trust your intuition when you sac. Your games show the virtue of taking an intelligent risk, so thanks for posting them. And thanks for inviting me back to the party! Feb-25-08    Gilmoy: [Originally posted in Ruy Lopez vs G da Cutri, 1575 .] An unread novel visits me in my dreams, softly entreating to be written in the way an Alaskan Malamute will croon for his dinner portion in the morning. It teases me by loosening its, ahem, covers, exposing a glimpse of its first line: <My father had three great hobbies in his life; as for myself, I am named Ludwig van Nistelruuy Lopez.> Apr-07-08    mistreaver: <I knew Immortal, Evergreen, Rubinstein's, Fischer's GotC.> When you say Immortal is that Rubinstein's immortal? And what is that Fischer's GotC? Thanks in advance. Mistreaver Apr-08-08    Gilmoy: <The Immortal Game> Anderssen vs Kieseritzky, 1851 is the first one, which started the fad of calling a great sacrifical win an "immortal". All more recent "immortals" must disambiguate somehow. Usually they add the winner's name, e.g. <Kasparov's Immortal> Kasparov vs Topalov, 1999. Sometimes they add the winner's nationality instead, e.g. <Polish Immortal> Glucksberg vs Najdorf, 1929. GotC = <Game of the Century> D Byrne vs Fischer, 1956, where he offers an exchange to open the e-file, and sacs his Q for a Philidor/windmill. Apr-08-08    mistreaver: < Gilmoy> Thanks very much. Apr-14-08    Gilmoy: This section follows <dzechiel>'s cute miniature in Dake vs A De Burca, 1935 (Puzzle of the Day, Monday 04/08/2008). We explore other ways of opening the h-file that don't involve a Q. (Aww ...) 1. 12/24/2002, Pogo, 5+3, GuaranteedGem-GilmoyFirewyrm, position after 17.Bd2, Black to win: click for larger view I thought my continuation was perhaps overly theatrical. 2. 08/09/2007, Pogo, 5+3, moodychess-GilmoySeesDedPpl, position after 22.Be3, Black to win: click for larger view Piffle or wow? I saw it in a flash, though it was just silly, almost tantamout to saying "I think you are a patzer, you will blindly save your rook". (That he did is beside the point :) But in retrospect, I see nothing else for White! Full game scores after a few days, hehe. Apr-14-08    mistreaver: I'll give a shot at your puzzles. 1) I think that Bf5 is the solution as it stops the f pawn from advancing and thus keeps h6 square for rook. 2) I kept looking at this but couldn't find anything Apr-14-08    WannaBe: You're a programmer (too)?!?! Nice to meet ya, take some time, and meet <YouRang> and <RandomVisitor> also!! =) Apr-24-08    Gilmoy: "Solution" (such as it is) to [p.1, kibitz 2], GilmoyEatsASalad - Tenor89P, which see. <At 12.e5 I was already envisioning the sac. This pawn thrust has two points: (a) boots out the stalwart Nf6; (b) clears e4 for a K-side swarm, e.g. Ne4, Q sideways, and possibly the b1-h7 diagonal. Black usually must struggle to prevent this!> 13..Nc7 <threatens Nb5> click for larger view <I saw that the immediate 14.Ne4 momentarily impedes my Q, after which 14..Nb5 drives her off, winning the e-pawn. So I wanted to move my Q first, without losing the pawn. Including time for the sac itself, I spent almost a minute on:> 14.Qf4 b5 15.Ne4 Bb7 16.Nf6+ Kh8!? click for larger view <I calculated that gxf6 17.exf6 isn't winning -- Black has time for Kh8-Rg8. I vaguely planned c3-Bc2 and a rook lift for pressure against h7. But having spent almost half my game clock preparing the sac, I was determined to have some fun!> 17.Rd3 <Now my N is safe (proof thereof is roughly Tuesday level)> Nd5 18.Bxd5 Bxd5 19.b3 Rac8 20.Rh3 g6 <20..h6 21.Rxh6+ and Q mates> 21.Rxh7# 1-0 <Black surprised me by declining the sac. It led to a slow-motion Arab mate, but I think after 17.Rd3 White is winning anyways. It's a fringe benefit of looking for outrageous sacs -- sheer aggressiveness can rattle your foe.> Apr-24-08    Gilmoy: Solution to Puzzle #1 in my [p.1, reply 15]. [Site "pogo.com"] [Date "2002.12.24"] [White "GuaranteedGem" 1632] [Black "GilmoyFirewyrm" 1756] [Result "0-1"] 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 <I hate the Scotch -- so unimaginative> exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Nxc6 bxc6 6.Bc4 Qh4!? <Sometimes I do this on move 4 just to see 'em squirm> 7.Qf3 Nf6 8.Nc3 O-O 9.O-O d6 10.Qg3 Qxg3 11.hxg3 <opens h> Ng4 12.a3 Ne5 <a pretty mini-tour idea in some defenses> 13.Be2 a5 14.Kh1 <Aha! he unpins his f-pawn -- thin ice ahead --> f5 15.f4 <he gives himself King-in-the-corner syndrome -- can be fatal!> Ng4 16.Bxg4 fxg4 17.Bd2 click for larger view <Like most other chess enthusiasts, I've gawked at Rubinstein's Immortal. One nugget I mined from it was a deep appreciation for King-in-the-corner. The canonical form has a B covering g1, as here, which implies that White's f-pawn moved. It can arise from the outright check Bc5+ Kh1. Rarely, White plays Kh1 specifically to unpin his f-pawn -- dangerous because he's inviting this mate pattern. Here, I realized with compounding amazement that White has one fatal weakness -- he can't double anywhere along the a7-g1 diagonal in one move. That means he can't stop my B -- only spite-block to delay mate. But how to get a line-moving R to h?> 18..Bf5! <mistreaver [reply 16] is correct: the point is to blockade f4, so that White's B cannot control h6.> 19.exf5 <now f4 is blocked by his own pawn> Rf6 0-1 click for larger view <White has two spite-blocks on the diagonal before Rh6#. Later, I realized that 18..Rxf5 works just as well. So I had no reason to decline that pawn. Hence, 18..Rf6 was a bit theatrical.> Apr-24-08    Gilmoy: Solution to Puzzle #2 in my [p.1, reply 15]. [Site "Pogo"] [Date "2007.08.09"] [White "moodychess" 1699] [Black "GilmoySeesDedPpl" 1890] [Result "0-1"] 1.d4 d5 <Before my KID jag> 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 Be7 5.e3 a6 6.Bd3 <yaay! the clockwork line> dxc4 7.Bxc4 b5 8.Bd3 Bb7 9.a3 Nd7 10.O-O c5 11.Bc2 Rc8 12.e4? <Harrumph -- now I re-engage my brain> cxd4 13.Nxd4 O-O 14.Be3 Ne5 15.f4 <the f-pawn departs> Nc4 16.Bc1 Bc5 <the B arrives> 17.Nce2 Nxe4 18.b4 Bb6 <homage to Rubinstein> 19.Kh1 <syndrome!!> Qf6 20.Bb3 Rfd8 21.Bxc4 Rxc4 22.Be3 click for larger view <OK, he's down a pawn, and his hapless Nd4 is pinned and outnumbered 4-3, so it's toast. The only question is which piece I want to end on d4. Rote application of minimal cost suggests ending with Rxd4, which wins NN(+B) for R(+B) and boots his Q out -- but after that, it's blah. Much more exciting was to hammer the King-in-the-corner syndrome, and end with Bxd4 -- a subtle fork, Ra1 and g1. What I saw "in a flash" was the Greco sac -- which is matish if I own g1!> 22..Rcxd4 <Ob. joke: "Oh, but"> 23.Nxd4 Rxd4! <"I insist"> 24.Bxd4 Bxd4 <"on controlling g1"> click for larger view <So I got the NN for R portion, but I sacked an exchange with my other R. During the game, I thought my whole combo was "silly" because it relied on White reflexively saving his Ra1 -- perhaps he could have refuted it by elegantly returning an exchange, and doing something on the K-side? But on hindsight, I think he doesn't have any such move! My Bs are just too, ah, "rubenstian".> 25.Rc1 Ng3+ <h opens up> 26.hxg3 Qh6+ 0-1 click for larger view <I sacked an exchange to set up an N sac. 'Tis more blessed!> May-26-08    Gilmoy: After Koltanowski vs NN, 1945, Puzzle of the Day for Monday (Very Easy), May 26, 2008. I did the same Q sac for Arab mate once, so I recognized it "instantly". [Site "Pogo"] [Date "2003.02.10"] [White "GilmoyDragsAWing"] (my 27th Gilmoy) [Black "gggessas"] [Result "1-0"] 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nc6? <Oops -- now he's down a gambit pawn!> 5.d3 Be7 6.Be2 O-O 7.O-O Re8 8.Nc3 d5 9.e5 Ng4 <Inevitably this will shatter his K-side pawns> 10.d4 f6 11.h3 Nh6 12.Bxh6 gxh6 13.exf6 Bxf6 14.Qd2 Nb4? <A free tempo> 15.a3 Nc6 16.Rad1 Bg5 17.Nxg5 hxg5 18.b3 <Hidden attack on d5> g4 19.Nxd5 gxh3 <Here I calculated that half-open h is more useful to me than g, and my K could hide from Black's Rg8+> 20.Bc4 hxg2? 21.Kxg2 <Elegantly clears 1 -- Black should have declined the pawn trade just to prevent this> Kh8 22.Rh1! Rg8+ 23.Kf1 Bg4 <Now I see mate, so material doesn't matter -- a tempo is worth more than a rook!> 24.Qh6 Rg7 click for larger view 25.Nf6 Bxd1? 26.Qxh7+ Rxh7 27.Rxh7# 1-0 <25..Qxf6 26.Qxf6 Bxd1 27.Bd3> and White still overpowers h7, e.g. <27..Kg8 28.Bxh7+ Rxh7 29.Rg1+ > May-28-08    Gilmoy: The Game of the Day for May 27, 2008, Gurgenidze vs A Lein, 1966, ends with 21.Re5 1-0 to Gurgenidze, with the following position: click for larger view <<Position after 21.Re5 1-0>> By sheer coincidence, just 3 days earlier, I had an isomorphic configuration of pieces, and I found the same combo OTB (before I ever saw the Gurgenidze game). That's pretty encouraging! [Site "Pogo"] [Date "2008.05.24"] [White "GilmoyLoses512MB" 1894] (my 88th Gilmoy -- still active :) [Black "RogDuaneChess" 1686] [Result "1-0"] 1.e4 b6 <bleah> 2.d4 Bb7 3.Bd3 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 <Looks like a Dragon, so I steer toward Yugoslav> 5.Be3 a6 6.Nc3 h6 7.Qd2 e6 8.O-O-O Ne7 <I start freelancing> 9.g4 b5 10.Rg1 b4 11.Na4 Bc6 12.Qxb4 <It's risky to give him half-open b, but pawn is pawn> Bxa4 13.Qxa4 Nc6 14.c3 <To transfer her to K-side> d5 15.Ne5 Bxe5 16.dxe5 O-O 17.f4 d4 18.cxd4 Rb8 19.f5 exf5 20.Bxh6 Rb4 21.Qc2 Re8 22.gxf5 Nxd4 23.Qg2 Qd7 24.Bd2 Qc6+ 25.Bc3 Rbb8 <Now it's a race -- his Q-side pressure is quite serious> 26.f6 Nc8 <I see the double-deflection, winning by a nose> 27.Qg5 Ne6 28.Qh6 Nb6 29.Rg5! <Nxg5?? 30.Qg7#> Na4 click for larger view <<Position after 29.Rg5 Na4 -- compare to above>> 30.Rh5! <threatens 31.Qh8#> gxh5[] 31.Rg1+ Ng7[] 32.Qxg7# 1-0 Transpose this finish back to Gurgenidze's position, and it works exactly the same. Lein was convinced. May-30-08    Gilmoy: <newzild> wrote in Gurgenidze vs A Lein, 1966, kibitz #22: <Gilmoy: In your skittles game, instead of 29.Rg5, why not just play 29.Rg3 and 30.Rh3?> You're right, both lines win -- in fact, 29.Rg3 mates 1 move sooner. I saw 29.Rg3, but I preferred 29.Rg5 for five reasons: 1) Sets a trap -- Black could lose instantly. 2) Burns some clock -- Black must think a bit to avoid #1. 3) Complacency -- Black might think he's safe, and miss the second threat. 4) Practice -- In future games, I probably won't have the luxury of two ways to win, and I'll need to be able to (see and) calculate a sac line. I had already invested the ~20 seconds to work out the sac to mate, so I decided to have some fun. (Also, I enlisted his help to double-check my work!) 5) Prettier :)		Become a Premium Chessgames Member today!

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