Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Tuesday Teaser



White to move, and get mated. What was Black's last move?
This position occurred in my game last night. I was Black. :-)
My shortest post ever!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, winners never quit and quitters never win.

Temposchlucker said...

must be b7-b5

Polly said...

Anon: Yep, that's what we say at the end of my Tae Kwon Do class.

My opponent was not a kid, but he loves playing out for the last cheap shot. I didn't let him get it this time.

tanch said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tanch said...

Nice puzzle, polly.

Black's last move is b7-b5 naturally. :)

Speaking of last cheap shots, I have this player at my chess club who always insists on playing on till the death even in hopeless circumstances.

In one of my games, my opponent refused to resign even after a Queen+King+Rook Pawn v King endgame, thinking she'll be able to go into stalemate. When I was 1 move away from checkmating her (it was her turn to move), she surprisingly yelled "Draw! Stalemate!" with a smile on her face.

I looked at her (wondering she's on drugs or something) and gave a small,"Eh?" .That's when she suddenly saw that her king is now forced to capture the pawn leading to checkmate.... boy.... that look on her face was worth every minute of that game.

tanch said...

PS: sorry for the previous deleted post. Double posted.

Polly said...

HH: Gotta love it when the opponent has this look of triumph, followed immediately by the look of horror of "OMG I'm toast."

Sometimes I think I act too mature and sportsmanlike by resigning once the opponent promotes. Or maybe I'm just too disgusted with the game to want to prolong the agony.