TURNING THE TABLES

The fourth world champion Alexander Alekhine is considered by many as one of the greatest chess players ever. He has the dubious distinction of being the only player to have died as the reigning world champion, unfortunately because his final years coincided with the second world war.

One of the greatest strengths Alekhine had was his ability to evaluate the playing strength & limitations of his lesser opponents & act accordingly. Here’s a legendary story about Alekhine’s exploits.

Following position was reached in a game during a simultaneous exhibition given by Alekhine against a group of German officers in 1943. He was playing white.

BLACK TO MOVE – “I RESIGN, MY POSITION IS HOPELESS”

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THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO

One of the reasons for the game of Chess to be so fascinating is that chess games usually replicate real war situations & real war strategy.

Over the years there have been several attempts by chess composers to replicate the battle of Waterloo which famously caused the downfall of the mighty french emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. None is more beautiful & aesthetically pleasing than the one below.

WHITE TO PLAY & MATE

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SOLUTION TO “THE INVISIBLE KING”

(This is a solution. To have a look at the problem first, click here)

The position looked like this couple of moves ago.

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THE INVISIBLE KING

This is a fascinating old problem. A mere glance at the below position is sufficient to detect that something is wrong with the position. Oh yes… THE WHITE KING IS MISSING.

WHERE IS THE WHITE KING?

But invisible to us, the white king is somewhere there on the chess board. The challenge is to locate the square. Not only that, you also have to find the final sequence of moves that led to this position.

Looks impossible !!! So let's do some logical thinking.

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