Tim Krabbé's Chess Curiosities does it again....

There is no better site for chess oddities than Tim Krabbé's Chess Curiosities. His site isn't very active now, but occasionally something new does come up. Recently he put up another post in his chess diary, wondering what chess position would be furthest removed from the initial position. That is, if you start with a position and go backwards to the initial position move by move without repetitions, what would the position look like that has the longest shortest move order? It wouldn't be bare kings, as Sam Loyd showed that bare kings could be achieved from the initial position in 17 moves.

Read more about it at Mr. Krabbé's excellent site, where he might explain things a little more clearly than I have. The diary entry in question is number 397. Here's the position that one of his friends came up with for the furthest position:

Harry Goldsteen, after L. Ceriani & K. Fabel
The Furthest Position, 185 moves
Original, 2008

 After 185...Ba5+

Krabbé provides the moves to get to this position at his website, so this is a legal position! If this kind of thing interests you, give it a look.

The Gifts Keep on Coming....

The greatest thing about this era of chess is that so much information is given away freely. For example, a week ago IM Johan Salomon tweeted a link to some analysis he had done of a game from 1981 involving Jonathan Tisdall.

My analysis of @GMjtis-G. Lee A beautiful and instructive game! Click to open on phone or in browser! https://t.co/i7GIC5T8kq

— Johan Salomon (@JohanSalomon) January 12, 2016

Older players will remember him for his coverage of various Karpov-Kasparov matches for Chess Life, but he also has the distinction of having not one but two moves included in Tim Krabbé's list of The 110 Greatest Moves Ever Played. The move in question came in at Number 15 on the list. (It should be noted that Krabbé stopped updating his list in, I believe, 1998, so you won't find Kasparov's Rxd4 against Topalov, for example.)

Here's the position in question:

Tisdall - Lee, London 1981

White to move after 14...Qg6

Tisdall remembered this game being played at a weekend tournament. Here's a link to IM Salomon's analysis, displayed using the ViewChess website. And just in case you'd prefer the KnightVision layout I've been using here, I've included that below as well. All analysis is by Salomon, though I have added a text note at the start of the game and made one minor correction in the notes.

Comments, reviews, serendipity, and a complete anecdote!

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