ROYAL BATTLES OF THE CHESSBOARD (1)
ROYAL BATTLES OF THE CHESSBOARD (1).
By Julian Corfield Blog 1, 20211010
( Queen v three minor pieces )
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The painting is of the Battle of Azincourt, by Enguerrand de Monstrelet, obtained from Wikipedia. It shows the initial position of the game between England and France for the European Domination Cup, 1415, played at Azincourt. Black lost the game, having prepared solely for 1) e4 e6 , only to be surprised by White’s 1) c4.
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One of my favourite books is N R Cole’s “Battles Royal of the Chessboard”, published in 1946. This contained complicated, not to say wild, games that featured material imbalances, with pieces scattered all over the board. What the games lacked in accuracy they more than made up for in excitement. My blog will be based on the same criteria, with more recent games.
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I shall only supply light notes, as I’m assuming that readers have easy access to chess engines. In addition, I’m not too bothered about the opening theory of the era, as I’m sure that readers will be able to consult modern book lines, should they wish.
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The game I've chosen this week features a queen battling against three minor pieces. At one stage it appears that the queen has a hopeless task but a few inaccuracies from White result in all the remaining pawns being on the king side. From this less promising position White conducts the game impeccably.
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Sergey Smagin, Russian GM, born 1958.
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Julian Hodgson, British GM, born 1963.
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I would like to thank KeSetoKaiba for his generous help in setting up this blog. See his informative blog for the general principles of chess openings.
All images from Wikipedia.
Comments, corrections, and improvements are most welcome. In particular, if you can suggest unbalanced games for me to examine, featuring such as Q vs BBN or RR vs BB + pawns., I would be most grateful. Nigel Short played a game in which he had five passed pawns and his opponent three! I also saw a game in which White briefly had quadrupled pawns, on f4, f5, f6, f7. These types of oddities are what I’m looking for.
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