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Monday, September 6, 2021

Most Common ICC Blunder Leads to Epaulette Mate

 Blitz Player rf(Robert Fischer diehard fan probably)  usually crushes me, but today he blundered trying to castle Queenside. I don't have incontrovertible proof, but with the center wide open he moved his Queen to d1 rather than TRIPLE O.

Do you see the mate in 2 in the position below with Black to move?  Rc1 attracts Whites rook to that square and then mate at d2 for the shouldered White Monarch. Note that Epaulette Mates would NOT BE THING if two pieces could occupy same square!

So, Yup attempted castling is the most common blunder. I guess some people just can not get used to King being able to move two squares.



Sunday, September 5, 2021

Was I playing Monkey; I mean former business colleague


A computer programmer that I sort of knew popped into my mind during the following blitz game. I did not know him well but he had a reputation as an excellent debugger and trouble shooter among the project leads and the developers or coders as they are called these days. 

Tom Holmen was logical guy that would explain his love of chess. Toguho, a monkey from Finland, played weakly in opening, dropping a pawn for nothing and then just running his h pawn down the board neglecting his development. 

His punishment was the lost ending you see where White has two minor pieces for the Rook and will win comfortably.  Last I heard, he was doing HR work and liking it, but we ended up in different countries so it has been awhile. 




 

Friday, September 3, 2021

Two Distinct Mating Patterns Decide this Sloppy Contest

 Norwegian Chess player Mark Fatty Thomas(markfattythomas) was in poor form lucky for me since he usually chews me up and spits me out Marvin Huckaby style.

The ICC blitz player when in for a piece sacrifice which was unsound owing to his ultra aggressive mood I suspect.

In the above diagrammed position White had a mate in two which is an enormous amount of information rendering this a trivial tactic to find. Problem in the game is the combatants HAVE TO KNOW IT IS A MATE IN 2 rather than sitting around on their couch in this Delta Mutation hell with a captioned position to work from.

White instinctively castled not noticing the forcing mate in 2 variation. The motif of two mating patterns simultaneously is what decides the game quickly