Monday’s position was a tribute to my late friend (and 1970s RTCC star) Malcolm Lightfoot.

The game Lightfoot – Cowlrick (Charlton Open 1973) continued with a queen sacrifice: 24. Qd8+ Rxd8 25. Rxd8+ Bf8 26. Bxf6, when, if Black plays, say, b4, White will continue 27. Nd5 exd5 28. Rxf8+ Kxf8 29. Rc8#. A spectacular combination, giving up queen, knight and rook for a checkmate in the style of Morphy.

Black saw this coming and continued 26… Qb6+ 27. Kf1 Qe3, when he must have been happy, as his queen was forking f4 and c1.

But he’d missed 28. Ne2, defending everything when Black has no good way to prevent mate.

The conclusion was 28… h6 29. Rxf8+, and, faced with mate next move, Black resigned. White’s brilliant finish earned him a place in the tournament bulletin and permanent immortality on MegaBase and elsewhere.

But Black should have preferred 27… Rb8, when he would have been able to untangle with a winning advantage. A move earlier, 26… Rb8 (27. Rxb8 Qa7+) was also good.

Returning to the diagram, if White had played something like Kh1 or h3, the position would have offered equal chances.

Was Malcolm right to play the queen sacrifice? In theory, no, but, in practice, yes. Would you have played it yourself?