DISAPPEARING ACTS

In a game played in 2006 between two moderately rated British players, following position was reached after black’s 14^th move.

RUDD-ROBERTSON 2006
WHITE TO MOVE

15.  e5

White played this innocent looking pawn breakthrough and all of a sudden all hell broke loose. Pieces started disappearing left, right and center.

15.   …                 dxe5

        16.   fxe5            Rxe5

        17.   axb5           Bxb5

        18.   Bxb5          Nxb5

        19.   Nxb5          axb5

        20.   Rxa8          Qxa8

        21.   Bxf6           Bxf6

        22.   Rxf6           Qxd5
23.   Qxd5          Rxd5

WHERE IS EVERYBODY?

In case anyone is interested in counting, that’s 17 consecutive piece captures. According to the famous Dutch chess writer Tim Crabbe (his excellent website is a bible to all lovers of chess curiosities) this game jointly holds the record for most consecutive series of captures.

REPLAY THE MOVES   

What is even more curious is the story of the aftermath of this mayhem. Remaining pieces proved rather difficult to dislodge as the game dragged on and on until a draw was reached after a marathon 144 moves. 

The other game with 17 consecutive captures was played in 1988.

This was the position after black's 11th move.

BLODIG-WIMMER 1988
WHITE TO MOVE 

Yet again a simple enough pawn move triggered all the fun.

12. c4

Mass clear-out of the ‘free for all’ variety ensued...

12. …               dxc4

13. dxc4         Nxc4

14. Nxc4        Bxc4

15. Nxe5        Bxe5

16. Bxe5        Qxd1

17. Rfxd1       axb5

18. Bxb7        Rxa4

19. Rxa4        bxa4

20. Bxc7        Bxe2

Final position is unrecognizable from the one 8 moves ago. Black won this game.

REPLAY THE MOVES

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