re: Books about the history and beauty of Chess

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Levitsky versus Marshall, also known as the Gold Coins Game, is a famous game of chess played by Stepan Levitsky and Frank Marshall. It was played in Breslau (now Wroclaw) on July 20, 1912, during the master's tournament of the DSB Congress. According to legend, after Marshall's winning last move of the game, gold coins were tossed onto the board by spectators, although this is contested by other accounts.

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After the game started with a French Defence, Levitsky made some suboptimal moves, and then a big mistake allowing Marshall to win a piece. Levitsky tried to counterattack, but Marshall's unexpected winning move put his queen—his most valuable piece—on a square where it could be captured by three of Levitsky's pieces. Legend says that this move immediately triggered a shower of gold.

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Qg3!!(see diagram)

Black moves his queen to where it may be captured three ways. Some annotators have even given this move three exclamation marks ("!!!"). Tim Krabbé considers it the third-most stunning move of all time. Black threatens ...Qxh2#. All three ways of capturing the queen lose, and other escape attempts fail as well:
24.hxg3 Ne2#
24.fxg3 Ne2+ 25.Kh1 Rxf1# (a back-rank mate)
any move by White's rook on f1 loses to 24...Qxh2+ 25.Kf1 Qh1#
24.f4 (or 24.f3) Ne2+ 25.Kh1 Qxh2#
24.Qxg3 (relatively best) Ne2+ 25.Kh1 Nxg3+ 26.Kg1 (if 26.fxg3 Rxf1#) Nxf1 27.gxh3 Nd2 with an easily won endgame, or 26...Ne2+ Kh1 followed by moving the rook on h3 away.
0–1

Levitsky resigned.

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The "shower of gold"

It is unclear whether the legend that the winning queen move triggered a shower of gold coins is true. Marshall insisted that "the spectators ... threw gold pieces on [his] board at the conclusion of [his] brilliant win over Levitsky", but Israel Horowitz reported that "Marshall's wife, Caroline, disclaims even a shower of pennies." Eric Schiller wrote, "others say they were just paying off their wagers."

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Fireside Book of Chess

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On this day in 1837, Paul Morphy was born! The most skilled player of his era, Morphy became America's first chess icon in the 1850s. Renowned for his rapid piece development and ideas far ahead of his time, he is now widely considered to be the forefather of modern chess.

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Youtube

Between shots on To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Gregory Peck taught Phillip Alford how to play chess.

Today is National Chess Day!!

I didn't know it either until five minutes ago!!







Sinatra with grandmaster Walter Browne



Capablanca (left) plays Herman Steiner as Cecil B. DeMille kibbitzes



Samuel Reshevsky and Charlie Chaplin



Alekhine (right) at MGM studios with Renee Adoree and director Fred Niblo

For those who want to introduce kids to chess, I very highly recommend getting your hands on an old copy of Chess Master 9000. Later Editions butchered the tutorial.

If you have an old laptop with XP on it, that would be ideal. Unless it has Windows 98... which, sadly, would also work

Starting at absolute novice level, the tutorials present new information/concepts quickly, but in small increments, with lots of quizzes that reinforce the principles.

My four kids all greatly enjoyed the program at an early age. It definitely helped make chess become a part of their lives

it teaches a great deal about patience in problem solving too. Early on, they are quick to get frustrated when they get stumped by a quiz problem, and they want help.

I'd make them walk through the problem and their assumptions for me out loud, and they almost always end up blushing as they recognize their error for themselves. They quickly learn how to systematically work through the problems on their own.

I think that might be the closest I ever came to being Ward Cleaver

Here is one on eBay for sale

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Today is National Chess Day!!

I didn't know it either until five minutes ago!!

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I missed this year's

Moscow, 1960