Wednesday 21 May 2008

The Ultimate Mate

While there are plenty of nice ways to checkmate an opponent, my choice for the ultimate mate is by castling. I'm usually impressed when I can simply castle with check, so to castle with checkmate would cap a pretty memorable game. At this stage of my career I haven't been able to do so, and given the scarcity of examples in my database (10 games out of 2.5 million), I would be surprised if I am able to do it even once.
So I am reduced to enjoying examples of other players performing the feat, as in this game from the 1968 Olympiad.

Prins - Day,L [B40]
Lugano ol (Men) Lugano, 1968

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.c4 a6 4.Be2 Nc6 5.0-0 Nf6 6.Nc3 Qc7 7.a3 b6 8.d4 cxd4 9.Nxd4 Bb7 10.Be3 Bd6 11.h3 Be5 12.Qd3 h5 13.Rfc1 Bh2+ 14.Kf1 Ne5 15.Qd1 Nxe4 16.Na4 Nc5 17.Nxb6 Qxb6 18.Nf3 Qc6 19.Bxc5 Bf4 20.Be3 Bxe3 21.fxe3 Ng4 22.hxg4 hxg4 23.Ne1 Rh1+ 24.Kf2 g3+ 25.Kxg3 Rxe1 26.Qxe1 Qxg2+ 27.Kf4 g5+ 28.Ke5 Qe4+ 29.Kf6 Qf5+ 30.Kg7 Qg6+ 31.Kh8(D)
31. ... 0-0-0# 0-1

1 comment:

TrueFiendish said...

Black was showing off, as the mate chosen had extraneous king movement. His majesty would not appreciate being bustled halfway across the countryside when ...Ke7 would do nicely. Off with his head!