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The Art OF THE CHECKMATE
By George Renaud, Victor Kahn, W. J. Taylor Dover Publications, Inc.
Copyright © 1953 Simon and Schuster, Inc.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-486-14651-5
CHAPTER 1
Legal's Pseudo-Sacrifice
We have not called this chapter "Legal's Mate," but "Legal's Pseudo-Sacrifice," because it is rather more an attacking maneuver than an actual mate. In certain cases this maneuver leads to a mate, and in other cases to a decisive gain of material.
GAME NO. 3
Philidor Defense
Played in Paris, about 1750
KERMUR DE LEGAL X.
De Kermur, Sire de Legal (1710–1792), was a strong French player, considered the champion of the Café de la Régence till he was beaten by A. D. Philidor, who was his pupil.
1. P–K4 P–K4
2. Kt–KB3 P–Q3
3. B–B4 B–Kt5
Although this move looks strong, it is not always wise to pin the opponent's King's Knight at such an early stage of the game, for the following reasons:
1) Because the Bishop can be driven away with advantage (4. P–R3, B–R4), or else it can be compelled to take the Knight (4. P–R3, BxKt), thus speeding up White's development as the Queen comes into play.
2) It is always preferable to develop the Knights before the Bishops, because the latter have a much larger scope and can choose at their own convenience a square, depending on what line of play the opponent chooses.
3) Because a pin is only a relative pin when the Queen is behind the Knight. As will be seen later, the Knight may move in spite of the pin, threatening Bishop, check, and, in certain cases, mate.
4. Kt–B3 P–KKt3?
5. KtxP !
This brilliant move was discovered by Legal.
5. ... BxQ???
A very bad blunder. Black instinctively grabs the Queen without noticing the threat. He thinks that he is just taking advantage of an oversight. The lesser evil was 5.... PxKt; 6. QxB, and White has won a Pawn, with a considerable superiority of development. After the next move, White mates in two.
6. BxP ch K–K2
7. Kt–Q5 mate.
The Typical Legal Mate
What is the use of studying this mate at length, the reader will wonder. It is two hundred years old, and quoted in every Chess book; all players know it by heart, and there is not the faintest ghost of a chance of ever using it in a game.
This objection is hardly valid. We do not ask you to learn this mate by heart. It is far more important to learn how it is brought about, and to realize the fact that the Queen's Bishop on Kt5 is unsupported and en prise if the King's Knight leaves his KB3 to threaten mate. This mating device occurs in many positions as a potential threat; and the opponent must take this into consideration if he intends to pin the King's Knight in the early stages of the game.
Even today many people are taken in by this famous two-hundred-year-old mate; and all strong players know they will have the opportunity to use it sometime in simultaneous displays. The victims themselves have heard of it and even know it by heart; but since the details of the position differ, and since they have never properly understood the mechanics of such a mate, they get trapped like beginners.
We now give you a few examples of this mate:
GAME NO. 4 Scotch Gambit
Vienna, 1847
E. FALKBEER X.
E. Falkbeer (1819–1885) was a strong Austrian player and the inventor of the gambit which bears his name: 1. P–K4, P–K4; 2. P–KB4, P–Q4, etc.
1. P–K4 P–K4
2. Kt–KB3 Kt–QB3
3. P–Q4 PxP
4. B–B4
White gives up a Pawn to speed up his development.
4. ... P–Q3
Black shuts in his King's Bishop. Better would have been 4.... Kt–B3, developing a Piece.
5. P–QB3
Definitely giving up the idea of recapturing the Pawn (5. KtxP), as White chooses to bring as many Pieces as possible into action.
5. ... PxP
6. KtxP B–Kt5
The bad pin!
7. O–O Kt–K4
A presumptuous move. Black, who is already very backward in his development, thinks he can attack. The refutation is convincing and dramatic.
8. KtxKt
Winning at least a Piece, since Black's best answer is 8.... PxKt; 9. QxB.
8. ... BxQ?
Blind and greedy!
9. BxP ch K–K2
10. Kt–Q5 mate.
GAME NO. 5
Vienna Game
Played March 16, 1900, at Hanover in a simultaneous blindfold exhibition against twelve players
H. N. PILLSBURY FERNANDEZ
Harry Nelson Pillsbury (1872–1906) was the strongest American player of his time. He had a very aggressive style and won many prizes in international tournaments: first prize, Hastings (1895), second prize, Paris (1900), first prize, Munich (1900). He was also a remarkable blindfold player, and held the then world's record with twenty-three blindfold, simultaneous games. He invented a variation of the Queen's gambit declined, commonly known as the Cambridge Springs defense, and also an attacking position in the same gambit. He was Champion of the United States from 1897 until his death in 1906.
1. P–K4 P–K4
2. Kt–QB3 Kt–QB3
3. P–KB4 P–Q3
4. Kt–B3 P–QR3?
A lost tempo!
5. B–B4 B–Kt5
The same absurd pin!
6. PxP KtxP ?
As in the previous game, Black has the same misplaced ambition of wanting to attack his opponent, with an undeveloped position.
7. KtxKt! BxQ ? ?
8. BxP ch K–K2
9. Kt–Q5 mate.
GAME NO. 6
Danish Gambit
Great Britain, 1912
A. G. ESSERY F. H. WARREN
Both players are British amateurs.
1. P–K4 P–K4
2. P–Q4 PxP
3. P–QB3 PxP
4. B–B4 P–Q3
5. KtxP Kt–KB3
6. Kt–B3 B–Kt5
Wherever Chess is played this pin seems to fascinate players.
7. O–O Kt–B3
8. B–KKt5
White foresees the coming blunder and pins the King's Knight.
8. ... Kt–K4
9. KtxKt BxQ
10. BxP ch K–K2
11. Kt–Q5 mate.
GAME NO. 7 Italian Opening
Played in 1929 at Leysin (Switzerland) in a simultaneous exhibition
A. CHÉRON X.
André Chéron, born in Colombes, 1895, has been Champion of France three times (1926, 1927 and 1929). He is author of the Traité complet d'Échecs (Complete Treatise on Chess). André Chéron specialized at first in the didactic study of the end-game, and later he published a systematic essay on the end-game of Rook and Pawn against Rook.
He is also a well-known and successful problem composer whose specialty has been the strategical problem, made popular in France by G. Renaud. His theory on this type of problem, Les Échecs Artisti-ques (Artistic Chess), is a model of logic and coherence.
1. P–K4 P–K4
2. Kt–KB3 Kt–QB3
3. B–B4 P–Q3
4. Kt–B3 B–Kt5
5. P–KR3 B–R4?
The right move to avoid any trouble is: 5.... BxKt.
6. KtxP ! BxQ?
The lesser evil is 6.... KtxKt; 7. QxB, KtxB; 8. Q–QKt5 ch, followed by 9. QxKt, with a better game and an extra Pawn.
7. BxP ch K–K2
8. Kt–Q5 mate.
The Second Aspect of the Legal Mate
If K2 is already obstructed (usually by a Bishop), the Legal sacrifice is possible without the co-operation of the Queen's Knight. Let us start with a typical example specially made up to illustrate this second aspect of the Legal mate.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Art OF THE CHECKMATE by George Renaud, Victor Kahn, W. J. Taylor. Copyright © 1953 Simon and Schuster, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
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