Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Crazy Queen
Chess players, and especially beginners, repeatedly are taught “do not play always with the same piece”. Beginners (especially kids) don’t pay too much attention to that. They are obsessed with the power that the queen possesses and play almost exclusively with the king’s partner.
The endgame played in today’s game looks like one between beginners. However, conducting the Black pieces was the great Mexican Carlos Torre Repetto.
Torre learned the game at the age of 6 by playing with his father and brothers. He moved to the United States in 1915 and his international chess career started in 1924. However, his dedication to competitive chess ended prematurely because of mental illness in 1926. In 1977 FIDE awarded him the International Grandmaster title based on his results in the mid 1920s. Torre was the first Mexican to ever achieve this title.
Actually, the present game never took place. More precisely, not all the moves correspond to those played in the game. The last eight moves are the result of Torre’s analysis who found a wonderful combination finishing the game in style.
Carlos Torre Repetto was a strong chess player in the 1920s. Beginners will probably not understand why such a player would offer the queen for six consecutive moves. In my opinion, Torre didn’t visualize the whole combination but knowing the pattern of back rank checkmate, he found all the needed moves one after the other.
Once you are familiar with the pattern, the sequence of moves becomes meaningful.
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