I’m a 63 year old man who decided it’s time to actually make an effort to LEARN the game of chess, and I’m doing fairly well so far.
Have trouble with the knights and co-ordinating them, but…oh well.
Anyway, I use the Chessmaster software which seems to be pretty good. It includes 850 famous games to watch, and here’s the question.
I’ve noticed that in several of the famous games, the game ends without checkmate, draw or stalemate. just ends.
And I can see for myself that there are yet moves to be made. I’ve included the 1967 game between Bobby Fischer, and P. Dely.
On the 17th move, Fischer moves his queen to a4, and puts Dely’s king in check on e8. and that’s where the game ends.
But I see that Dely could move his king to d8, e7 or f7. Yet the game ends.
What happens there? did time run out?
Did Dely resign, and if so, why???
Am I missing something here?
Like I said, I’m a fairly newbie just trying to understand these things.
Thanks in advance
————— Admin ———–
Hi Russ,
this is an interesting position indeed.
Fischer’s pieces (White) are better placed. You just compare each piece from Black with each piece from White to understand that White is winning here.
Factor 1:
Let’s start with the king. The white king is safe whereas the black king is caught in the middle and this makes him vulnerable as he can get attacked from all sides! This factor is very important in chess.
Factor 2:
Compare the queens. The white queen is more actively placed than the black queen which is placed very passive.
Factor 3:
The black rooks are dead and completely useless in relation to the problem area. Do they defend? No! Do they attack anything? No! Do they protect the king? No!
Does the white rook attack anything? Not now, but soon he will as Black must react now and has no time to develop his rooks..as he is in check, time matters in chess, but the white rook can attack quickly and his attack will be deadly.
Factor 4:
The white bishop is more active than a black rook.
He is also deadly and works together whith the other white pieces like a family. All members of the white family are working together excellently.
But in the black family only the queen works! The other members of the family are unemployed!
Get this: White has three attackers (queen, bishop, rook) and black only one defender, the queen. THREE versus ONE! Simple mathematics! So White should win somehow. In positions like this you start calculationg to find a winning combination.
Variation 1 – White moves
1.Qa4+ Kf7 2.Rf1+ and the black queen is lost and Black can resign!
Variation 2 – Black moves
1.Qa4+ Ke7? 2.Bc5+ and the queen is lost and Black can resign!
Now things are getting a bit complicated!
Variation 3 – White moves
1.Qa4+ Kd8 2.Rd1+ here he comes! Kc8 3.Qc4+ Kb8 4.Rd7 ocupying the seventh rank is very important for a rook because it is usually deadly! …Qc8 5.Bf4+ Ka7 6.Qd4+ Qc5 7.QxQ mate
Variation 4 – White moves
1.Qa4 b5 2.Qxe4 (attacking the rook) Rd8 3.Qc6+ Rd7 (3..Ke7? 4.Bc5 loses queen) 4.Qc8+ Ke7 5.Bc5+ etc. wins queen and eventually the game after that. If 4…Rd8 (instead of 4…Ke7) there is no winning combi so go back to 5.Qc6+ Rd7 and now 5.Bc5 Qf5 6.Re1 attacks the weak e6-pawn which is not defendable easy to see. 6…Qd5 7.Re7+ Kg8 8. QxR QxB+ 9.Kh1 and White has a winning position as black rook is stil unemployed and white pieces are on seventh rank and threatening checkmate on the weak eight rank. White is winning.
See below.
Black moves
White threatens checkmate playing 1.Re8++ or 1.Qd8++ or playing 1.Rxg7+ Kf8 2.Qf7 mate. This is undefendable!
Back to – How to play Chess – Chess Questions