CHESS by Philidor

No. 302. H. W. BARRY (1st Prize, La Strategie, 190I) WHITE to play and mate in two moves; solution next week. Solution to No. 301 (McIntyre): 1 Kt B x, P - Q 7 ; 2Q- Q 4 and now 2 . . . K x Kt (B 8) ; 3 Q -Riorz...Kx Kt (K 8) ; 3 Q - Kt x. If x P - Q 5; then 2 Q x P ch and 3 Q - K 2 or B 2 mate. Very elegant miniature. BLACK (8 men) WHITE (8 men) Visiting the Paignton tournament recently—which finished incidentally in a triple tie between P. H. Clarke, A. S. Hollis and A. J. Whiteley with 5i/7 (I hope to publish Hollis's excellent last-round win shortly)—I picked up a copy of Modern Chess Minia- tures (Barden and Heidenfeld, published by Routledge and Kegan Paul, its.). This is an excellent collection, doing credit to both authors—who disarmingly explain in the introduction how they split the work between them, so that you can tell where to address complaints about any particular game. If readers get as much pleasure as I do from mayhem in miniature they will get a good guinea's worth here.

White, BALOGH Black, SANDOR Opening, PIRC DEFENCE

(Budapest, 1956)

P - K 4 P-Q

3 Kt-QB3 P-t KKi3 4 P-B3 B- Kt a

5 B - K3 P- B 3 6 Q-Qa Q Kt - Q z

7 0-0-0... premature: in closed positions one

R

should delay castling Q as b 4eing too committal. Better K Kt - K 2. - 8 K-Kt r P- K 4? Bad, positionally and tactically. He should play P - Q Kt 4, keeping the centre dosed, and build up his queen's side attack. An incidental minor advantage of P - Q Kt 4 is that the natural developing reply K Kt - K 2 would not do because of P - Kt 5 winning a piece. The text

move is also a tactical blunder - .

9 K Kt-K 2? ... which White fails to exploit. 9 Kt - Kt 5! would win a pawn; 9 Q x Q; to Kt x P ch, K - K 2; II Kt x B ch and az R x Q. Curiously enough, Barden in annotating the game also overlooks this simple win.

0 - 0 Better 9 P - Q Kt 4: 110 hurry to

castle.

to P- K Kt 4 P-0 Kt 4 xr Kt - Kr 3 P - Kt 5 Better . Kt - Kt 3 threaten- ing Kt - B 5. After the text, Black's attack is too slow.

12 Kt (B 3)- K 2 R - Kt

13 P- K R 4 Kt-Kt3

14 - B r Kt-RS Threat Kt - B 6 ch. 13 Kt- Kr 3 Q - B

r6 B - R 6 BxB - r7 QxB P xP

r8 Kt- K B5! BxKt 18...PxKt;t9KtPxP,Kt-K r; 20 R - Kt a ch and 21 Q x R mate. r9 Kt P x B P- Q 4 Black's attack is too slow—but he must try it; passive defence will be useless. 20 P- R 5! QPxP zo . . . Kt xR P?; 2/ R xKti, P x R; 22 B - Kt 5!, fig- Kt 6; 23 B x Kt and wins. 21 RPxP Q- R4? A better chance was 21 .. . B P X P e.g. 22 B - B 4 ch, K - R 1; 23 Kt x P! and White should win but there is still a struggle.

22 PxRPch K-Rr 23 B- Kt 5! ... a valuable tempo-gaining move. If now 23 P x B; then 2.4 Q R - Kt t, K - Q 2; 25 R - Kt 8 ch!, R x R; 26 P x K x Q; 27 R - Kt x ch and mate next

move.

Kt-105 24 P x Kt PxB 25 P - B6 - Resigns.