Chess
Triple echo
Raymond Keene xamine this diagram. Twelve years ago 1–../C. H. O'D. Alexander gave this posi-
tion as a test to Bill Hartston, Jonathan Penrose, Andrew Whiteley and myself
before including it as the final and most dif- ficult problem in his Penguin Book of Chess Positions. I remember being amazed by the solution and this is what CHO'D had to say about it when he gave the answers: `From the game Ortueta — Sanz, Madrid 1934. Black won by 1 . . . Rxb2! 2 Nxb2 c3!! 3 Rxb6 (not 2 Nd3 c4+ 4 Rxb6 cxd3 5 Rd6 c2 or 5 Rc6 d2) 3 . . . c4!! Unbeliev- able. If now 4 Nxc4 c2 and White's knight and rook between them are unable to stop the pawn queening. After 4 Nxc4 c2 5 Rc6 cl = Q + Black will win the "a" pawn and should ultimately win the ending, but this would be White's best chance. However, very naturally, White played 4 Rb4 — now 5 Na4 and also Rxc4 are threatened — only to be met with 4 ... a5!! Now if 5Rxc4 cxb2 followed by a pawn queening, or if 5 Nxc4
c2. White played 5 Na4 axb4 and White resigned. Two general points emerge from this tour de force (I do hope it really hap- pened) — the knight's difficulty in coping with a pawn on the seventh rank and that two pawns on the sixth rank win against a rook.'
Fantastic, but clear enough. Then in the first issue of the magazine New in Chess (the English version of the excellent Dutch magazine previously titled Schaakbulletin) I recently saw the following two games in an article by Tim Krabbe: Ortueta — Sanz, Madrid 1933 [sic].
1 e4 e6 2 d3 d5 3 Nc3 N16 4 e5 Nfd7 5 f4 Bb4 6 Bd2 0-0 7 Nf3 f6 8 d4 c5 9 Nb5 fxe5 10 dxe5 Rxf4 11 c3 Re4 + 12 Bet Ba5 13 0-0 NxeS 14 NxeS RxeS 15 Bf4 Rf5 16 Bd3 Rf6 17 Qc2 h6 18 Bey Nd7 19 Bxf6 Nxf6 20 Rxf6 Qxf6 21 Rf 1 Qe7 22 Bh7 + Kh8 23 Qg6 Bd7 24 Rf7 Qg5 25 QxgS hxg5 26 Rxd7 Kxh7 27 Rxb7 Bb6 28 c4 dxc4 29 Nc3 Rd8 30 h3 Rd2 31 Na4 Rxb2 32 Nxb2 c3 33 Rxb6 c4 34 Rb4 a5 35 Nxc4 c2 and White resigned.
Tylkowski — Wojciechowski, Championship of Poznan 1931.
1 f4 d5 2 e3 c5 3 Nf3 Nc6 4 Bb5 Bg4 5 0-0 e6 6 d3 Bel 7 Nc3 d4 8 Nbl Nf6 9 e4 0-0 10 Bxc6 bxc6 11 c3 dxc3 12 Nxe3 Bxf3 13 Rx13 Ng4 14 Kh 1 Qd4 15 Qgl Qxgl + 16 Kxg1 Bd8 17 Be3 Nxe3 18 Rxe3 Bb6 19 Rd] h6 20 e516 21 exf6 Rxf6 22 Rf3 c4+ 23 d4 c5 24 d5 exd5 25 RxdS Kh7 26 Rd7 Rd8 27 Rb7 Rg6 28 Rg3 Rxg3 29 hxg3 Rd2 30 Na4 Rxb2!! 31 Nxb2 c3 32 Rxb6 c4! 33 Rb4 a5!! Spectator 16 June 1984 34 Nxc4 e2 35 NxaS el Q+ 36 Kh2 Qe5 37 R.b1 Qxa5 38 g4 Qel 39 g3 h5 40 gxh5 Kh6 and Wh'le soon resigned. Trying to unravel the mystery, I surmise the following: Alexander's position is an idealised study version of Ortueta-Sanz; the game Ortueta-Sanz looks totally genuine, a random struggle, ending in the brilliancy by accident. The Poznan specimen, though ar parently dated earlier, seems more dubious' There is too laboured an effort to inflict the Black doubled 'c' pawns and to get the Black KB to b6. Also 23 . . . c5 is P°s; tionally very dubious, when Black should obviously play a rook to d8. If both gaie,s, are genuine, though, it is a coincidence vat° astronomical odds against. Krabbe saY5 that the Polish game was only published In an obscure chess column in the Poznan local paper, Dziennik Poznanski.
anyone out there have a copy? Krabbe fers a huge reward for anyone who does.
There is a free introductory issue of New in n Chess. Write to 'Chess Combinationje Rippleside Commercial Estate, RIPP0 Road, Barking, Essex if you wish , receive it.
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