Game Of The Week
This week's game comes from my first visit to the Parker Chess Club. The club is run by John Brezina, who played in the online Colorado Springs Chess Club events while the pandemic shut down our physical location and came down to our first Over-The-Board event in May. I decided to return the favor by visiting his club. Plus, he arranged to have a special guest lecture from FM Sunil Weeramantry. Sunil is a chess trainer and chess author. He founded the National Scholastic Chess Foundation and is known for being the trainer of his stepson GM Hikaru Nakamura.
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| Best Wishes To The Colorado Springs Chess Club |
On this night, Sunil did his lecture on one of his games where he was able to go on a King Hunt against his higher-rated opponent. He used some historical references to famous Kings in history to highlight some key concepts about King Hunts in chess. The first King he mentioned was King Charles I, who was beheaded on January 30, 1649 with a Bible in one hand and a chess board in the other. His amber chess board, dating from 1607, was sold in 2012 for a record £600,000.
King Charles was so engrossed in his chess game that he remained at the board when a messenger came to warn him that the Scots had betrayed him and his execution was imminent. He was searching though his Bible for advice on how to get his opponent's King when he stumbled across this passage where King David schemes to get rid of Bathsheba's husband:
And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die.
2 Samuel 11:15 KJV
Of course, Sunil realized the value of this story. Forcing your opponent's King into the front lines is worth the cost of your pieces. A bigger army won't fight on without a King.
I was so impressed with the lecture's combination of history and chess I decided to buy my first chess book. FM Sunil Weeramantry is the author of Great Moves: Learning Chess Through History and had an inscribed copy with him. Actually, the first chess book I bought was LM Brian Wall's How To Play Chess Like An Animal, but I purchased that for my son and nieces.
It was about this time during the lecture that LM Brian Wall arrived at the library. I hadn't seen him since before the pandemic, and he looked to be struggling with his chess equipment. I waved to him and asked if he needed any help. Since I have lost over 100 pounds, he didn't recognize me and thought I was just one of his chess groupies. He pushed past and mooned me!
I was so thrown by Brian's behavior I could no longer focus on the lecture. Fortunately, there is an online copy of Sunil giving the lecture at the St. Louis Chess Club.
The first part of the video covers his game from 1963 when he was about 1200. His opponent may have taken him lightly and pushed to attack too soon. Sunil realized he could win versus his higher-rated opponent if he didn't worry about the rating and just played the position. In this position, he started focusing on finding the right moves.
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| White to move |
The King Hunt
[Event "Parker Chess Club Lecture"]
[Site "https://cschessnews.blogspot.com/"]
[Date "1963.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Weeramantry, Sunil"]
[Black "Fiaccabrino"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C53"]
[PlyCount "37"]
[EventDate "1963.??.??"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Qe7 5. O-O d6 6. d4 exd4 7. cxd4 Bb6 8.
Nc3 Bg4 9. d5 Ne5 10. Be2 Qf6 11. Nxe5 Bxe2 12. Qa4+ Ke7 13. Bg5 Qxg5 14. Qd7+
Kf6 15. Qxf7+ Kxe5 16. Qe6+ Kd4 17. Nxe2+ Kc4 18. Qd7 c6 19. Qxb7 1-0
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