'Do you play chess Lightcastle?'
As I was Swedish vice champion that year I said that I did.
I took the black pieces and employed 'The Black knights tango', a system that Grandmaster Stuart Conquest had success with in the recent European Championship.
White to move and loose.
Final position (0-1)in Delchev-Conquest
Delchev stands up after his novelty.
After around 60 moves we reached the following position
and soldier Pakkaanen continued to play as if his life depended on it. I found this quite reassuring as if we were going to war it's good to have comrades who would fight to the bitter end.
The thing that really taxed my brain was trying to work out if this was an opening, middlegame or endgame. Perhaps an endgame for him and an opening for me or perhaps the real answer is
opening + endgame
________________ = middlegame
2
However the white chanses shell not be underestimated, as the following example shows.
Anyway the battle raged for another 60 moves or so until we reached the position in Diagram 3.
diagramm 3
After around another 40 moves we reached the position in Diagram 4 (roughly).
diagramm 4
Soldier Pakkaanen, who had been on the offensive and had chased me round the board several times, suddenly spoke for the first time during the game.
' I don't see how to checkmate. Are you sure it's possible?'
'I don't know' I lied . I didn't see why I should enlighten him. Maybe he will want to play for big bucks later. Who knows?
There were another 5 or 6 soldiers in the room so Pakaanen asked them if it was possible to mate with king against king. Nobody knew.
So the game continued and he chased me round the board once more before finally deciding that the task was beyond his powers and proposed that we call the game a draw. Fair enough, I said.
Recently I got hold of this endgame video and after careful study I now know that it is a win and not a draw as I thought previously.
I am much relieved as for a third of a century the thought that I had lied to Pakannen had weighed heavily on my conscious.
And I am not even a catholic so there was no-one to ask for forgiveness.
