CHESS CLUB staged a couple of exhibition games at a gathering hosted by our friends at the
Salem Boardgames Meetup. Salem's
inimitable Gulu Gulu served as the venue.
Although he claims to be inexperienced, el Greco stunned the Gabridoodle, winning his
maiden game at CHESS CLUB. The Gabridoodle put his anger into his work, though, and he then won a 48-move marathon against the Explorer.
In CLUB business, el Greco was appointed candidate member.
Game 1: el Greco - Gabridoodle, 1-0
This game began in
orthodox enough fashion. El Greco, with the white pieces, began mounting an
impudent kingside attack. At move 13 (see illustration at left), the Gabridoodle made what turned out to be a key blunder, moving the horse to d4; it was promptly grabbed by el Greco's queen. This greatly complicated the Gabridoodle's management of el Greco's impudent kingside attack.
Here we are at move 23. El Greco's impudent kingside attack has become a major crisis for the Gabridoodle. However, thanks to some fancy footwork and a
befuddling move or two, he actually managed to survive it, although at the cost of The Exchange.
They don't call it a
poisoned pawn for nothing ! At move 27, el Greco got greedy and grabbed the Gabridoodle's a7 pawn. This allowed the Gabridoodle to suddenly go on the offensive,
unleashing his queen, eventually relieving el Greco of a horse
and a rook !
After quite a bit of dancing around, el Greco finally got the situation under control, delivering checkmate at move 40, as shown at left. Lessons learned... For the Gabridoodle: don't slack off when there's an impudent kingside attack. For el Greco: never, ever give the Gabridoodle a chance to wriggle out of the
noose.
Game 2: Gabridoodle - Explorer, 1-0
The first two dozen moves of this game featured all the
thrust and parry we expect from a confrontation between the Gabridoodle and the Explorer. A decisive moment came at move 25. The Explorer seemingly scored a coup,
forking the Gabridoodle's rook and queen (it had been at e3). However, the Gabridoodle came up with a response, moving his queen to b6 and demonstrating that sometimes the best reply to an attack is a new attack ! Now if the Explorer took the rook (he didn't), he'd lose a bishop and a horse.
Move 33 brought a key event: the Explorer blundered away a bishop by impulsively moving his rook to attack the Gabridoodle's queen. The Gabridoodle simply snatched the bishop with his queen, gaining an ultimately decisive
material advantage.
The Gabridoodle probably had a faster, more elegant way to win, but being a mere
woodpusher, he didn't checkmate the Explorer until move 48.
Despite on-going malaria issues and the aforementioned huffing, the Gabridoodle was in better form, successfully parrying the Chess Pirate's aggressive early thrusts. At move 10, the Pirate committed a flagrant touch-move rule violation -- but hey, this is a "friendly" game ! Her frustration showed again on the next move, when she castled using a shiv ! At move 17, after the Pirate made a routine recapture, the Gabridoodle said, "That doesn't intimidate me !" The Pirate's response was, "Then I'm not doing it right !" Awhile later, a confounding pawn move made by the Gabridoodle brought forth this gem from the Chess Pirate: "I need to move my queen away from your stupid Bishop. Stupid bishop !" The game continued with neither player achieving a decisive edge. At move 56, well beyond the point where the game became drawish, the Pirate demanded, "Take it ! Don't waste my time !" This marathon finally ended with stalemate after move 64. As shown in the diagram, there wasn't much left on the board.
