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1994-01-05
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73 lines
EVANS ON CHESS. July 30, 1993. Copyright by GM Larry Evans.
-n--k-K-
-------R
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----N---
------N-
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White mates in 3 moves
THE WAY IT WAS
Today's puzzle was conceived by the poet Alfred de Musset, a habitue of the
Cafe de la Regence in Paris. The chess tables are gone, alas, but once they
were frequented by the likes of Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau and Ben Franklin.
Voltaire contested a postal chess match from there with Frederick The Great,
dispatching his moves to a waiting courier. Corporal Napoleon also spent a
lot of spare time there absorbed in his favorite pastime.
The story goes that a beautiful girl disguised as a man checkmated
Robespierre and then revealed her identity to plead for the life of her
condemned lover. She got an order for his immediate release.
A kibitzer who always watched the games in total silence was asked to settle
a dispute. But he had no idea how to play! He was simply a married man, said
he, who preferred to spend his evenings away from home. George Walker, an
English master, described the congenial coffee-house in 1840:
Stove-heated to oppression, gas-lighted, mirrors in abundance
and slabs of marble to top its tables. On Sunday all keep
their hats on, to save space, and an empty chair is worth a
ransom. The din of voices shakes the roof as we enter, like
a beast-show at feeding time!
Can this be chess, the recreation of solitude? We sigh for
cotton to stuff our ears. Mocha is brought. We sip. Manners
are to be noted and chessmen are to be sketched.
The English are the best lookers-on in the world, the French
the very worst. They do not hesitate to whisper their opinions
freely, to point with their hands over the board, to foretell
the probable future, to vituperate the past. I have all but
vowed that when next I play chess in Paris, it shall be in a
barricaded room.
Midnight is long gone. Players are thinning, the garcons yawn,
the drums have beaten the round, and the good wives of Paris
are airing their husbands' nightcaps. I reluctantly prepare to
face the cold. Farewell, at least for a season, to the Cafe de
la Regence.
In 1858 the American Paul Morphy won acclaim by playing 8 strong opponents at
once without sight of the board. After ten hours he won 6 and drew 2, thus
breaking Andre Philidor's record of three blindfold games there in 1783! "The
waiters at the Cafe had formed a conspiracy to carry him in triumph on their
shoulders but they could not get near him," wrote a journalist. "The crowd in
the street was even larger and their cheers were deafening."
That's the way it was. Today the blindfold record stands at 52 games.
White: PAUL MORPHY Black: HENRI BAUCHER Philidor Defense 1858 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3
d6 3 d4 exd4 4 Qxd4 Nc6 5 Bb5 Bd7 6 Bxc6 Bxc6 7 Bg5 f6 8 Bh4 Nh6 9 Nc3 Be7 10
0-0 0-0 11 Qc4 Kh8 12 Nd4 Qd7 13 Rad1 Rf7 14 f4 a5? 15 f5 Rff8 16 Ne6 Rg8 17
a4 Ng4 18 Qe2 Ne5 19 Bg3 Qc8 20 Bxe5 dxe5 21 Rf3 Bd7? 22 Rh3 h6 23 Qd2 Kh7 24
Qxd7 Bd6 25 Rxh6! Kxh6 26 Rd3 Kh5 27 Qf7 Kh4 28 Rh3 Kg4 29 Qh5 mate.
*****************************************************************************
1 Rd7! Nxd7 2 Nc6! any 3 Nf6 mate.