Friday, February 03, 2006

Treasure Trove


diagram

LaFrese - Zrinsack, Queens Open 1974
White to play and win.

Some of our members -- including Bob Pelican, Bill Sokolosky, Howard Osterman, and Leon Hrebinka -- were good enough to clean, organize, and repaint the Kenilworth Chess Club's storage closet at the Rec Center. In the process they unearthed a small treasure trove of old chess magazines and newsletters, including some wonderful old copies of the Atlantic Chess News with fascinating opening analysis and games by our members. There are several exciting things in that collection and I will definitely be discussing some in these pages. For now, just a diagram from a July 1979 copy of Chess Life and Review (p. 409), from the game LaFrese - Zrinsack, Queens Open 1974. Quite a position, of which Mr. LaFrese writes: "After a sharp opening and middlegame, followed by a vicious time scramble, things looked pretty grim for me. My opponent's QRP appeared unstoppable.... I took one last look and prepared to resign." What did he do instead?

3 comments:

Icepick said...

1. Kg5

One could add a little flourish with 1. Kg4.

1. ... a5

Everything is the same if Black runs the b-pawn instead.

2. Kf5 a4
3. Ke6!

Turning the corner....

3. ... a3
4. h8(Q)+ Kxh8
5. Kf7 a2
6. g7+ Kh7
7. g8(Q)+ Kh6
8. Qg6#

Clearly, the h8(Q)+ idea won't work until White's King can step to f7, so as to keep the Black King on the h-file.

Icepick said...

This goes nicely with Tim Krabbe's recurring feature on The Ultimate Blunder, although Mr. LaFrese avoided making that error.

Incidentally, I'm assuming you don't mind non-KCC members replying to these posts. Is that correct?

Michael Goeller said...

Very nice! And, yes, "icepick," all are welcome to respond. I focus on Kenilworth but I know that the vast majority of readers (as you can see for yourself from our stats) don't even live in New Jersey -- and half on some days don't even live in the US.