Archive for September 4th, 2009

A controversy is raging in the news media over a picture being put on sale by the British auction house Mullock’s. It depicts Hitler and Lenin playing chess, in 1909, when they are supposed to have met in Vienna. The etching, by Hitler’s Jewish art teacher, has a preliminary price of £40,000. But is it genuine? The chess historian Edward Winter introduced us to the topic some years ago.

This week Nigel Short, aged 44, crossed the elite 2700 barrier once again, regaining the England number one spot he had lost for years. It was yet another twist in the remarkable career of the Athens-resident Englishman. We spoke to Nigel about form, longevity, and the secret of surviving at the top of world chess at middle age. Must-read interview.

… in games on the very highest level truly are a rare occurrence. Yet sometimes… Okay, this is what
happened: 36.Nxf6+ Rxf6 37.Rxf6 Qxf6 38.gxf4 gxf4 39.Qe2 and soon after the peace pipe was smoked. How would you judge this sequence?
A) the moves were correct, so the draw was the logical result.
B) Black missed a forced win on the way.
C) using a little trick, White could have obtained a clearly better endgame.

The solution is here,
but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram