Opponent finally makes a crucial mistake, going after my Queen while my knight is at his King's doorstep. I now have an alternating unblockable knight check to double check setup, and what LOOKS like a standard smother mate but isn't, and a pawn and a rook sieging from the south. IF smother mate were possible right now, it could only be stopped by taking out the knight, which my opponent does:
He either thought I had a sure smother mate or thought I could open a double check trap, or, simply forgot about my queen. Or ...?
Whatever the case, after I move my rook up, he sees no matter what he does, I'll checkmate him in one move:
So, he resigns, ending a well-fought game.
" ... it will defame my reputation ... "
In 1978's Eastern movie "Drunken Master", Jackie Chan's character loses to a martial arts assassin dubbed "Thunderleg" in American English.
But, although he loses, and the villain IS, apparently a killer, Chan doesn't die; the villain spares him. The villain doesn't frame it as mercy; he instead tells Chan that the reputation and infamy he's earned as Thunderleg would be undermined if he "kills such a minor person as yourself".
The loss spurs Chan to take the lessons of his assigned mentor, a heavy drinking old man derided yet HIGHLY respected as "Beggar So", seriously.
There's enough variety of format in how Chess games, and even tutorial panels, etcetera are represented, that it's probably worthwhile to mention that any older book will always display a chess board oriented one way, and only ever one way, and that is with White on the bottom, and Black on the top, in any game's starting position.
The convention probably arose because one of the rules of chess is that White always moves first.
However, even though that rule hasn't changed over the years, the convention in many places now, probably due to the influence of computers, is to take the perspective of whichever player you're examining.
Hence you'll very often see boards where Black is in White's stead in the bottom position on the board, and White is on top:
1. e4 {[%emt 0:0:3]} e6 {[%emt 0:0:3]} 2. Nf3 {[%emt 0:0:10]} d5 {[%emt 0:0:11]} 3. Bb5+ {[%emt 0:0:9]} Bd7 {[%emt 0:0:13]} 4. Bd3 {[%emt 0:0:3]} Nf6 {[%emt 0:0:36]} 5. 0-0 {[%emt 0:0:19]} dxe4 {[%emt 0:0:4]} 6. Re1 {[%emt 0:0:49]} exd3 {[%emt 0:0:9]} 7. cxd3 {[%emt 0:0:3]} Bd6 {[%emt 0:0:30]} 8. d4 {[%emt 0:0:4]} 0-0 {[%emt 0:0:7]} 9. d3 {[%emt 0:0:18]} Nc6 {[%emt 0:0:35]} 10. Nc3 {[%emt 0:1:10]} Re8 {[%emt 0:0:6]} 11. Bg5 {[%emt 0:0:14]} h6 {[%emt 0:0:10]} 12. Bh4 {[%emt 0:0:6]} g5 {[%emt 0:0:10]} 13. Nxg5 {[%emt 0:0:24]} hxg5 {[%emt 0:0:10]} 14. Bxg5 {[%emt 0:0:2]} Qe7 {[%emt 0:0:29]} 15. Ne4 {[%emt 0:0:8]} Qf8 {[%emt 0:0:31]} 16. Nxf6+ {[%emt 0:0:15]} Kh8 {[%emt 0:0:13]} 17. Qh5+ {[%emt 0:0:3]} Kg7 {[%emt 0:0:12]} 18. Qh7# {[%emt 0:0:3]Mate} 1-0
There are certain cities around the world that act as “meccas” for today’s best and brightest chess players. Places like Havana, St. Petersburg, Tromso, London, Reykjavik, and more all have bustling chess scenes that encourage and challenge the next generation of top chess players. Let’s take a look at each city and see what makes each one so chess friendly:
Havana may not be the first place you think of when you think of chess friendly cities, but it actually ranks pretty high on the list! José Raúl Capablanca was a Cuban chess champion in the 1920s, and his success in tournaments is what first turned Cuba’s attention toward chess. The city even holds an annual chess event in memoriam of him – the Capablanca Memorial Tournament, which attracts thousands of competitors and spectators each year. For many years, it was the best paying tournament on the circuit!
Everyone knows that Russians love their chess, and nowhere is that more true than in St. Petersburg. The country’s second largest city is filled with chess clubs, chess teachers, and public spaces where people can come together to play chess. St. Petersburg is even thought to be the place where the term “grandmaster” first came into being, when Tsar Nicholas II bestowed that title onto the top 5 players at the 1914 tournament there.
Iceland’s capital city is home to 6 of Iceland’s 8 grandmaster level players, which isn’t surprising when you consider that 60% of all Icelanders live in the capital region! Because of Iceland’s small population, it can also be said that 1 out of every 20,000 residents in the city is a chess grandmaster! Those are some impressive statistics. Reykjavik also played host to one of the most famous chess matches ever – Bobby Fischer vs. Boris Spassky, cementing its place in chess history forever.
London has long been an epicenter for European chess culture. In fact, the whole thing started here in 1851, when London hosted the first ever formalized, international chess tournament. That particular tournament was won by German player, Adolf Anderssen. Since then, London has hosted 7 more world chess championships, second only to Moscow.
New York is home to Marshall’s chess club, which many grandmasters frequent and many famous players have played – including Magnus Carlsen and Bobby Fischer. It is the hub of American chess culture. New York is also the city that hosted the game-changing match between Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue, the computer that would make chess history by beating him at his own game.
