Marshall, Alekhine, Nunn and Morphy.

Marshall, Alekhine, Nunn and Morphy.

The Planet Greenpawn

Marshall, Alekhine, Nunn and Morphy.


Title here

An early Christmas present I treated myself to was this.

Title here

I picked it up when I down in London for the World Championship...

Yes there is something wrong. The picture of the pieces have been mirrored
(that my friend is the technically term for turning the picture back to front.)
Possibly done on purpose for some fancy artistic reason which I have missed.

Amazing Chess Coincidence No.21.
(Someone is going around removing famous chess games from the book indexes.)

I also have another meaningless minor nit-pick. Do you remember this
from the last Christmas Quiz Blog Post 405 who it?

Title here

It is indeed Frank Marshall (Black Queen on g3 the ‘Gold Coins Game.’ )

Levitsky - Marshall, Breslau 1812

Black has just played 23...Qc3-g3, White resigned and then it rained gold coins.

This game is missing from the Index. (told you it was meaningless nit-pick)
I think it is odd that Marshall’s most famous game is missing from the index.
Alekhine’s favourite game, his famous win v Bogoljubow at Hastings 1922
is missing from the index in the Bell edition. of his ‘Best Games 1908-1923’

Possibly the most famous game ever played , was left out of this book....
Title here

...on purpose. The reason being...
Title here

Fair enough, It is John Nunn’s book, he gets to choose what goes in it.

What I find strange is that it is a beginners book so , and I’m guessing here,
it is aimed at beginners and there is a very good chance (another guess by me)
that the reader will never have heard of Morphy and his opera loving chums.

Infact the very first sentence of the introduction reads:
Title here

Yet the reader, that will be the beginner, is being told that someone they have never
heard of once played a game of chess against two people, (Eh? Chess is a three
player game) and that nearly everyone else uses that game but it is not very good.

I’m thinking John Nunn may have used the introduction to quell any future
reviewer who might have noticed no Morphy at the Opera game which does
appear to be standard fare in many books. It is his book, so he just left it out.

Or maybe not and he was just having a good old fashioned rant in print.

John uses Mohamad Al Modiahki - Htun Zaw Tin, Myanmar, Burma, 1999.
as the all important first game to teach the student how to read chess notation.

Any reasonable game for the student will suffice providing, as John does here,
there are lots of diagrams to show the student they have the correct positions.

Another coincidence is the game in question was repeated here on Red Hot Pawn.

Geno100 - Stefan Schulze RHP 2014


green pawns

As I type this the year 2018 is taking it’s last breath so I’ll take a brief look
back at my games in 2018. Don’t worry, I’ll make this very a brief look back.
The figures are quite close, same number of wins and draws with either colour

I played 232 games winning 180 (90 with White and 90 with Black) I managed to
draw 24 games (12 with White, 12 with Black) lost 13 as White and lost 15 as Black

Two of my glorious losses were under 10 moves. They were from Hardcore events
where you have to finish 40+ games in 21 days and wonderful mistakes are plentiful.

greenpawn34 - Farzad Farsee RHP 2018


My other tale of woe in nine moves.

greenpawn34 - Melina67 RHP 2018


An interesting 2018 win by me with the White pieces.

greenpawn34 - falkowski RHP 2018


No trouble selecting my best Black win of 2018. I’ve given this before. It’s a goodie.

Kratic - greenpawn RHP 2018
Notes will based loosely on what I was thinking.


We end this short trip down memory lane with a problem/study.

White to play and win.


A good one this for teachers to show a class.


Title here

The thread accompanying this blog is Thread 179761


Title here

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

Show Comments (1)
Comments (1)

  • Posted 1908 days 22 hours and 11 minutes ago
    Standard memberJack Black
    Another entertaining blog. Keep them coming Greenpawn!
    Last Post
    23 Mar '24
    Posts
    467
    Blog since
    06 Jul '10

Cookies help us deliver our Services. By using our Services or clicking I agree, you agree to our use of cookies. Learn More.I Agree