English Chess Forum

On 10 March 2020 I posted this tweet:


Nine days later the following appeared on the English Chess Federation's website:


The same day this tweet was posted by the ECF:


- O.G. Urcan

I suppose they could have presented it as a retweet, can't get very excited.

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 03, 2020 1:18 pm

I suppose they could have presented it as a retweet, can't get very excited.

I am mildly irritated by the original poster. Most of us have more to worry about at the moment than whether a brief non-copyright obituary notice has been plagiarised.

I agree that it is a minor transgression in this instance, the underlying principle is not unimportant however!

Well to lighten the mood here's one of Richard Guy's puzzles unashamedly nicked from the Wikipaedia obituary, but at least acknowledged - so no peeking there and then revealing the answer as if you've done it by yourself!

White to move and win. I don't think the number of moves was given by the setter, so I'm not doing either. (It isn't a low number).

8/1p1p1p2/pP1P1P2/8/k1p5/2P1p1pP/2P1P1P1/4K3 w - - 0 1

I might assume you need Kd1 first?

I take it the main line is 1.Kd1 Ka3 2.Kc1 Ka2 3.h4 a5 4.h5 a4 6.h6 a3 7.h7 Ka1 8.h8N a2 9.Ng6 fxg6 10.f7 g5 11.f8N g4 12.Ne6 dxe6 13.d7 e5 14.d8N e4 15.Na6 bxa6 16.b7 a5 17.b8Q a4 18.Qb2#.

David Sedgwick wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 03, 2020 1:27 pm

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 03, 2020 1:18 pm

I suppose they could have presented it as a retweet, can't get very excited.

I am mildly irritated by the original poster. Most of us have more to worry about at the moment than whether a brief non-copyright obituary notice has been plagiarised.

On the other hand why do it eh

IM Jack Rudd wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 03, 2020 5:01 pm

I take it the main line is 1.Kd1 Ka3 2.Kc1 Ka2 3.h4 a5 4.h5 a4 6.h6 a3 7.h7 Ka1 8.h8N a2 9.Ng6 fxg6 10.f7 g5 11.f8N g4 12.Ne6 dxe6 13.d7 e5 14.d8N e4 15.Na6 bxa6 16.b7 a5 17.b8Q a4 18.Qb2#.

Yes, except for the typo [15 Nc6 et seq] at move 15. This problem was a real joy to present to our juniors, partly to demonstrate the dangers of stalemating an opponent in an ending and partly to show that, when a pawn reaches the eighth rank, they shouldn't automatically reach for a queen.