Friday, September 14, 2012

Strangers on a Train

In 1977 or so, I was a passenger on a CTA train in Chicago, analyzing on my portable Drueke chess set. My seatmate challenged me to a game. The following was the result. No masterpiece, not surprisingly, but it has an amusing finish. After 4.Qf3?! I blitzed out 4...Bg4, but was startled to realize that I was losing a pawn after 5.Qg3! No matter, my lead in development gives me good compensation. His subsequent play doubtless wasn't the best, and 12...Re8+! would've been strong for me. In the final position, he tried 16.Qc3. I played 16...Na2+, and offered to let him take back his move. He then tried 16.Qc5, and I played 16...Nb3+. He scowled and resigned. The manner in which the queen is lost to either of two royal forks, each executed by a different knight, reminds me of NN-Leonhardt, Leipzig 1903, a fun game that I'd learned of a few years earlier from Fred Reinfeld's book "How to Win Chess Games Quickly."

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