Can Anyone See a Pattern Here?

I wouldn't normally show a crushing defeat of one of our own players on this website (unless I was the one doing the crushing!), but sometimes there are bigger forces at work and the game cries out to be broadcast. This is just such an occasion. Thankfully, the drastic reverse suffered by a KCC player wasn't while playing for KCC, but it was for one of my teams - Warwickshire Select in the 4NCL. Those of you who read the FT chess column should have already seen the game, and I suspect that it is going to become a staple of tactics and opening books in the future. So, time to come clean and identify the guilty party as Andrew Paterson. Andrew had a brilliant season for KCC in 2022-22, especially in the Leamington League where he scored an undefeated 11.5/13, which will surely have been enough to win the Stanley Gibbins Trophy for the best performer in the League. But on this day in June, things went decidedly - and spectacularly - pear shaped.

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Well, that was  shocker and no mistake. So imagine my surprise last week when - quite by chance - I came across this game from Rd 1 of the 2022 French Championships. With all respect to Andrew, the player of the Black pieces in this game was rather stronger, being no less a person than 2552 rated GM, Sebastian Feller, who was once banned for cheating at the 2010 Chess Olympiad. I am pretty sure he wasn't cheating in this game!!

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So clearly, as far as Black is concerned, that well known chess commentator William Shakespeare was quite right: "When sorrows come, they come not single spies but in battalions." But it doesn't end there, because just one day later, the motif - in a rather different setting - came up again in the first round of the British Championships in Torquay. This time, unfortunately, the crowd were not treated to another queen sac, but the possibility was certainly in the air. Black refused to fall into the fiendish trap set in the game Rudd v Forster, and we were denied a quick fire hat-trick.

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Apologies to Andrew for sharing his grief so widely, but the sudden prevalence of this spectacular motif really struck me as something worth noting. I don't expect to hear of any KCC members falling ointo this trap in the near future!