My latest chess history post, which you can read here, concerns the Beamish cousins, Ferdinand Uniacke (!) and Edmund Arthur. Although he never seems to have been a member of any chess club in our borough, playing for West London at the end of his life, Edmund Arthur Beamish was born in Richmond, and lived in the area after the First World War.

This week’s puzzle was taken from a 1904 simul game in which he was consulting with (Frederick Kimberley) Loewenthal against the great Emanuel Lasker.

Lasker, playing Black, missed a chance here. He played the very natural 14… Qh4 in this position: the game was later drawn.

As some of you noticed, 14… c5 would have given Black an overwhelming advantage. For instance 15. Be3 Nxe3 16. fxe3 cxb5 17. axb5 Qg5 wins a pawn, leaving White in a hopeless position full of weaknesses with his king stuck in the centre.

If you did better than Lasker, well done!

Here’s the complete game: click on any move for a pop-up window.