Wednesday 16 July 2008

A Tragedy in 3 Acts

The first round of a swiss tournament usually involves the top half demonstrating to the bottom half why they are in the bottom half. Of course there are a couple of upsets just to give people something to talk about, but the above script is normally followed.
But the first round of the ANU Winter Swiss definitely didn't follow the script. There were a number of upsets, and the results of a number of games were decided by single (bad) moves.
The Bronze Medal went to the game where in a drawn position one player missed the only threat his opponent had by allowing his Queen to be pinned against his King.
The Silver Medal was earned when excellent play saw the lower rated player emerge an exchange up with nothing left on the board except RvB (plus pawns for both sides). All that was left was to clean up a few stray pawns, but unfortunately the first move in the plan placed his Rook on the same diagonal as his King allowing a Bishop fork.
But the Gold went to the game shown in the diagram. White had been doing all the attacking, and triumphantly concluded the game by playing Rf8+. Black looked at the board, looked at the opponent, and then reached out his hand to .... Resign! "Can't stop that" he remarked. Watching the game I was also caught up in the mass delusion as it took me 30 seconds to realise (and point out) that Rxf8 just wins a Rook for Black.

4 comments:

Phil Bourke said...

The title shows how devestating an effect these game had upon Shaun :)

Alana Chibnall said...

Do I dare ask who that Gold Medalist game was between? :)

TrueFiendish said...

Nowhere more than in chess is the line between comedy and tragedy finer.

Anonymous said...

It's chess and everybody better be prepared to taste defeats