Philidor Con+Reinfeld+Murphy+Morphy+A Competition

Philidor Con+Reinfeld+Murphy+Morphy+A Competition

The Planet Greenpawn

Philidor Con+Reinfeld+Murphy+Morphy+A Competition

Liars!

Everyone of them. Liars. (and they owe me £1.99 ).

Philidor did this, Philidor said that, Philidor done this…it’s all lies.

I can find no game of Phildor playing the Philidor Defence.

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6



No game of Philidor playing the ‘Philidor Legacy’.
(A Queen is sacced to deliver a Knight mate to a smothered King).

Example: forever green with envy - ShallowBlue RHP 2004



But the biggest lie is this:

I was browsing in my favourite 2nd hand CD store looking for
anything by Johnny Rockaday and the Hoola Hoops when I saw this.

Philidor CD


I bought it and rushed home knocking old people out of the way.
You can imagine my utter disgust and disappointment when after
playing the CD twice I discover not once does Philidor say

“Pawns are the Soul of the Game.”

Infact he does not say anything!

I’ve been lied to and now I have been cheated out of £1.99.

Why me?

And anyway Pawns are not the Soul of the Game.

Pawns are the Misfits of Chess.

Whoever came up with stupid rule that pawns cannot move backwards
needs horse whipping twice a day. Three times on Sunday.

Pawns can mess you up good and proper.

You have to move your pawns to get your pieces out and then find
you have to protect your moved pawns with the very pieces they let out!

How daft is that?

St. Dosh, the patron saint of the cash in my pockets came to my
rescue when she guided me into a flea market and I found this for 25p.

The MCO

(wrong picture greenpawn….Russ)

… and I found this for 25p.
Who is this


Amongst the ‘Instructive Games’ along with Tarrasch and Morphy etc there was this:

The Fred Game

One of Fred Reinfeld’s games in a Beginners Primer.
I cannot recall Fred ever using one of his games in his books
and this one would not look out of place in any of them.

I’ve noted up the game based very very loosely on the comments in the book.



Amazing Chess Coincidence No 678.

So I’m thinking who is Albert Balasco? Fred did write
under a few other names, was Albert Balasco one of them?

A Chess Quest. Brilliant, I love Chess Quests.

I start going through some old American Chess Reviews and in
February 1954, on page 54(!) this diagram pops out at me.
Murphy 1954

End of quest.

I play out the game. It won the Brilliancy Prize in the 1953 Irish Chess Championship

Murphy v Turner.

Note that it is Murphy and not Morphy. Play out the
game, well worth it and I’ll will be asking questions.


The final position….


…..the Rook cutting off the King and the Bishops covering the flight squares
stirs up the old memory cells. A Morphy game….Yes. (Not Murphy…Morphy)

Barnes - Morphy, London 1858. Final Position 0-1


Morphy is Black and nothing can stop Rh6 mate.

Struggling for a note I dust off Fritz to see if it comes up with
a silly evaluation after the Queen sac or even a sillier way to
prevent the mate than that Qxg2+ (something was itching me).

Now remember this note in the Morphy - Turner game?
(Which I put in after Fritz poked my eyes out).

“If this was played in 2011 you would think it was a computer playing Black…”

Fritz is ticking over and I notice that it says White is not winning.
Well cover me in strawberry jam and throw me into the custard bowl.

Look what the wee beastie has found. I missed it.
The good old boys from 1954 missed it as well.


Black to play. (in the game he played 26…Qxg2).

He can defend and enter an endgame with 26…Qf3!!


10 out of 10 to anyone who spotted that one.

There is no mate because after 27. gxf3 the White Bishop
cannot give a deadly check on e2. Check it out for yourself.

White's best is to go into an opposite coloured Bishop ending.
(says Fritz….I could not analyse any further as I’m still stunned.)

from the diagram 27.gxf3 d6 28.Bxh7 Rxh7 29.Rxh7+ Kg6


An amazing defensive resource that has been waiting 58 years to be discovered.

Have to give the credit to Fritz, could quite easily have said
I saw it but that would not be true. Damn. Fritz 1 greenpawn 0.

And that brings us to another Morphy/Murphy coincidence.

I’ve recently been analysing on the Chess Forum Thread 140172
Morphy - Paulsen, New York 1857. Where Morphy in this position…..


played the brilliant 17…Qxf3.


Spot the link?

Isn’t Chess simply the most wonderful game on Earth.

green bar


Chess Quest Competition No.73. Who is Albert Balasco?

The luckyperson who posts in the comments box all the
details on who this chap is wins a CD (by Philidor)

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

Show Comments (18)
Comments (18)

  • Posted 4246 days 12 hours and 40 minutes ago
    Standard memberkaspan
    Well am coming from the other end but you are still right i have lots and lots of catching up to do 🙂
  • Posted 4246 days 17 hours and 35 minutes ago
    Subscribergreenpawn34
    Thanks Kaspan.

    This Blog is 2 months old - you have some catching up to do. 😉
  • Posted 4247 days 13 hours and 11 minutes ago
    Standard memberkaspan
    As usual a fantastic blog GP! And Murphy sure did a superb morphy there 🙂
  • Posted 4694 days 7 hours and 3 minutes ago
    Standard memberMarinkatomb
    "But not today and not on this board. Rf8 is prevented, time to close it down." This made me laugh out loud! Great blog, once again. Cheers 🙂
  • Posted 4695 days 15 hours and 32 minutes ago
    Subscribergreenpawn34
    So there are two Albert Belasco's, one Fred Reinfeld
    who wrote under different names and this Philidor chappie
    whose name has been given to loads of things he did not do.

    I think we are getting somewhere.
  • Posted 4695 days 18 hours and 16 minutes ago
    Standard memberErekose
    I don't believe the artist and the author are the same people. The artist was born in 1938.

    Another book by Albert Belasco was also"The 12 Best Indoor Games for Two" (1940). eg http://www.amazon.co.uk/TWELVE-BEST-INDOOR-GAMES-TWO/dp/B000SI9Q5Y
  • Posted 4695 days 19 hours and 51 minutes ago
    Subscribergreenpawn34
    🙂

    We have changed his name from Belasco to Balasco.
  • Posted 4696 days and 6 minutes ago
    SubscriberPaul Leggett
    He invented Balasco sauce. It's great on burritos!
  • Posted 4696 days 5 hours and 15 minutes ago
    Subscribergreenpawn34
    Good find but how come in 1913 he has a game played in 1929 in it?

    In the Draughts section, Albert Balasco shows one of
    his games. So he is possibly a well known draughts player.

    The game is Balasco v A.Bell (no year or place given).
    The book I have was first published in 1956.

    I'm blaming Philidor for this.
  • Posted 4696 days 5 hours and 23 minutes ago
    Standard membertomtom232
    And if the book was written that long ago then it can't be one of Reinfeld's aliases.
    Last Post
    27 Apr '24
    Posts
    470
    Blog since
    06 Jul '10

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