Larry Christiansen: the modesty of a grandmaster

While there wasn't much truly remarkable about today's simul at South Station, Grandmaster Larry Christiansen did begin by joking that his autograph was worth 39¢ on eBay.  The Gabridoodle isn't selling !

There was a full house and the Gabridoodle only got in two games. Both were relatively long, 36 and 41 moves.  Against a grandmaster, the Gabridoodle considers anything more than 30 moves a small triumph.

A gawker posted a video in which the Gabridoodle appears briefly.

Game 1

The Gabridoodle was stunned when the GM opened with c4 -- he almost always starts with e4.  Perhaps, as GM Ben Finegold likes to joke, it was because c4 is an explosive move.  After collecting himself, the Gabridoodle went for a symmetrical English.  However, he later blundered a piece and never really recovered.

Game 2

The second game featured some relatively interesting action. GM Christian had the white pieces again.

Here, the Gabridoodle actually managed to be a dirty rat and pull a fast one on the GM. After moving his queen to f6, Christian chased it away with his knight.  Maybe he didn't notice the pawn on f2 was hanging or, perhaps more likely, he didn't care.

Christiansen's rook to f1 chases away the Gabridoodle's queen but with queen to d4, he threatens mate and forces a queen trade.  The GM seemed unhappy about this.

Later on, the GM finagled an exchange and is about to turn his queenside pawns into a fleet of runaway locomotives.  Here, finally at move 41, the Gabridoodle resigned rather than suffer while Christiansen ground out the win.

There's usually more than one way to get out of check

This is a little lesson for the beginners...

We won't name any names, but the Gabridoodle had an amusing 16-move miniature in a game with a member of Salem CHESS CLUB played at Chess.com. 

What happened

The game had a very sharp opening.  The unnamed player panicked a little and swapped a piece for a pesky pawn.  However, the Gabridoodle was then given a few scares by his opponent's rampaging queen.  After some fancy footwork, he found a way to bail out, forcing a queen trade.  Or so he thought...

For once in his life, the Gabridoodle was gallant and messaged his opponent a hint: don't panic and consider there may be more than one way to get out of check.  Despite this helpful advice, his opponent responded to the check with a fatal mistake: Kd1.

At first, the Gabridoodle was all excited about the prospect of taking his opponent's queen for free.  But then he saw that he could deliver instamate instead.

As they say: when you see a good move, look for a better one.

They also joke that if you have a choice between taking your opponent's queen for free and checkmate, take the queen.  There is small grain of truth to this: the mate you see might turn out not to be mate, while if you take the queen, you'll probably end up winning.

What should have happened...

When you're in check and it isn't mate, you'll have one, two, or three ways of getting out of check:

* Moving the king.

* Interposing a piece between the king and the attacking piece.

* Capturing the attacking piece.

Had the unnamed opponent simply captured the Gabridoodle's queen, he'd have recaptured with the bishop and the game would have continued.