This is the crux, with Stamma’s mate
if White takes the bait: 135.Kxh7??
Kf7 136.Kh8 Ne5 137.Kh7 Nd7
138.Kh8 Nf8 139.h7 Ng6#
135.Kg6 135…Ke6ο
ο 136.Kh5 Kf5ο
ο
137.Kh4 Kf4ο
ο 138.Kh3 Kf3 139.Kh2
Kf2 140.Kh3 Ne5 141.Kh4 Kg2
142.Kh5 Kf3 143.Kh4 Nf7 144.Kh3
Nfg5+ 145.Kh2 Kf2 146.Kh1 Ne6
147.Kh2 Nf4 148.Kh1 Kg3 149.Kg1
Ng2 150.Kf1 Kf3 151.Kg1 Ne3
152.Kh2 Kg4 153.Kg1 Kg3 154.Kh1
Kf2 155.Kh2 Ng5 156.h7 the pawn
moves again (156.Kh1 Ng4 157.h7
Ne4 158.h8Q Ng3#) 156…Ng4+
157.Kh1 Ne4 158.h8Q Ng3#
What else remains? Well the one last exercise I tried was to put the actual moves from the game through the
Tablebases, to see how well we were both doing. The results are tabulated below:
Move No
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
W move
Kf3
Ke3
Kd3
Kc3
Kb2
Ka2??
Kb2
Ka3
Kb2
Ka2??
Kb1??
Ka2
Kb1??
Ka2
Kb2
Kc1
Kb1??
Ka2
Kb1??
Ka2
Ka3
Ka2
Kb1
Moves to Mate
90
89
88
89
84
44
43
42
40
29
32
40
25
40
40
39
25
40
11
38
39
38
25
B move
Ne6
Ke5
Kf4
Ke3
Nd4
Kd3
Kc4
Kb5
Kb4
Kc4??
Kd3??
Kc3
Ne2??
Kb4
Nd4
Kc3
Ne2??
Nc1+
Nb3??
Nd2
Nb3
Nd4
Ne2
Moves to Mate
90
89
90
89
88
44
43
42
40
43
44
40
41
41
40
39
41
40
39
40
39
40
41
Notes
No. moves to mate halved
83 Kb1?? Or 83 Ka1?? are both 8 moves to mate.
87 …Nd3 is correct, see below
The table shows that neither of us had much idea of what we were supposed to be doing. Every time I blundered into a
bad position Welling immediately gave me all the moves back again. The crux is that at one point (move 87) I blundered
into a mate in 11. Now I’m sure that this would be calculable to a finish, but only if the attacker knows that the position
has suddenly shifted some thirty moves in his favour – without that knowledge the mistake is surely academic.
For the record, it would go thus:- 87…Nd3 88.Ka1 Kc4 89.Ka2 Kb4 90.Ka1 Ka3 91.Kb1 Kb3 and we’ve reached one
of the starting positions analysed by Rory and I above.
Notes
[1] Cassidy – Welling, Saint Vincent 2005 (http://www.icu.ie/games/display.php?id=11841)
Welling told me that it has since been published as an illustrative game in a German book on the c3 Sicilian – I’m
guessing that it’s Zeller’s book on Murey’s Antidote (1.e4 c5 2.c3 b6) but I so far haven’t been able to confirm this.
[2] Martin A. (2004) Shopping for a Tombstone Part 1
(http://www.jeremysilman.com/chess_bits_pieces/110103_blackmar_dmr_gmbt.html)
[3] Martin A. (2004) Shopping for a Tombstone Part 2
http://www.jeremysilman.com/chess_bits_pieces/110103_blackmar _dmr_gmbt_2.html
[4] Lane G. (1995) The Blackmar-Diemer Gambit. Batsford. p.73
[5] Mueller K. (2003). The Damned Pawn. (http://www.chesscafe.com/text/mueller35.pdf)
[6] Mueller K. (2003). The Damned Pawn 2. (http://www.chesscafe.com/text/mueller36.pdf)
[7] http://www.k4it.de/index.php?topic=egtb&lang=en.
28 | P a g e
Irish Chess Journal