Fives Friday

Problem...  Black is clearly winning in this position.  Among the many moves Black can play, there is one great move that wins the game in one move.  There is also a move that looks good, but doesn't work quite so well... in fact it results in a Stalemate...  Answer below.

Checkmate in one move: Qf5# - this means Q (Queen) f6 (goes to f6) # (Checkmate)
Stalemate: Qxf3 - this means Q (Queen) x (takes) f3 (the queen goes to f3, thereby 'taking' the pawn)

Stalemate
What is Stalemate? Stalemate is any position where the player who is to play next is not in check, and there is no legal move that they can make on the board.  In the position above, if Black's Queen takes the pawn on g3, it will not be check.  White's one remaining pawn will be unable to move because it is blocked by his own King.  White's King, while not being in check will be unable to make any move because the White Queen is blocking all available squares.  The result is Stalemate and that is a type of Draw, so the points are shared.

​I have a suspicion that White, who has just moved his King to h5, was hoping for Stalemate, and probably couldn't believe his luck.  If you are reading this and that was your plan - well played.  Well played to Black also - the game has ended up in a draw, but he has played really well to get himself into such a strong position.  So well played to both.

If you are a long way up in a game, it is always worth leaving a few of your opponents pawns on the board to reduce the chance of stalemate.  It is also worth remembering that if you are lucky to be able to get lots of Queens, you may well end up in Stalemate, so be very careful.

​The Results...
U1350...
1st: FlatUpbeatFalcon
2nd: ORichards
3rd: BentHuskyBullfrog

Open...
1st: Rowantree
2nd: rafcalum
Equal 3rd: GlumSuddenBacon & WiseCrabbyCoconut

If you have a ChessKid login, you can see the full results and all the games here:
U1350: https://www.chesskid.com/tournament/u1350-fives-friday-41344/results
Open: https://www.chesskid.com/tournament/open-fives-friday-41345/results

Next Event
On Tuesday evening, we have two events:
U1200 starting at 6.15pm (registration on ChessKid from 6pm)
Open starting at 6.20pm (registration on ChessKid from 6.05pm)

Join Suffolk Junior Chess on ChessKid
We run tournaments on ChessKid twice a week on Tuesday and Friday evenings.  On each evening we run an easier event and a harder 'Open' event.  We run the events on ChessKid because we believe that this is the safest online environment for juniors, although we do advise that players are supervised by an appropriate adult at all times.  If you would like to join the Suffolk Junior Chess club on ChessKid, please email Tim Kent at suffolkjuniorchess@gmail.com.