Chess tutor, writer, organiser and player. Ex-bridge player, cryptic crossword solver and ex-compiler. Music lover. Family and local historian. Website programmer and promoter, editor, proofreader.
My latest Minor Piece tells the inspirational story of Hans Cohn, a blind Jewish boy from Berlin who fled the Nazis to study at Worcester College for the Blind. He played chess at a high level for decades, representing Willesden in the London League. I was privileged to play him in a Richmond 2 v Willesden match in 1976.
Here’s a pawn ending from one of his games: Vaccani – Cohn (3rd IBCA Blind World Championship 1975).
From this position the game continued 42. h4 h6 43. g5 h5 44. Ke5 Ke7 and a draw was agreed a few moves later.
Monday’s puzzle was an endgame study composed by two of the greatest Soviet masters of this art, Leopold Mitrofanov and David Gurgenidze (Shakhmaty v SSSR 1987), which I discovered in the June 2026 issue of the British Chess Magazine.
The solution is 1. a6! Ra1 2. Bg1+! Rxg1 3. Kh8! Rd1 4. a7 Rh1+ 5. Kg8 Rg1+ 6. Kf8 Rf1+ 7. Ke8 and White will emerge with queen against rook: not so easy to win over the board, but sufficient for a win in a study.
Congratulations to David, the first to find the first two moves, and to Mike L, who found White’s third move. You might want to work out for yourself why the unlikely Kh8 is the only winning option here.
You can play through the solution here: click on any move for a pop-up window.
The inaugural Gavin Wall Memorial Trophy match took place at Orleans Park School, Twickenham, the HQ of Richmond Junior Club, on Saturday 20 June.
The trophy celebrates the life of IM Gavin Wall, who sadly died last summer. Gavin was one of the very early members of Richmond Junior Club, and, later, for many years in the late 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, a much valued member of the RJCC team, helping to run the morning group as well as giving regular lessons and simuls.
It was only just before his untimely death that he returned to RJCC to give a simul.
We fielded a team of players rated under 1800, but it soon became clear that the young stars of RJCC were all underrated by several hundred points, a tribute to the excellent coaching they receive there.
Although we had the white pieces in the first round, we lost every game against our mostly lower rated opponents.
In the second round we did slightly better, with a great win for George, along with draws for Advik and Oscar. We’ll need to field our A team next season if we want to get our hands on the trophy.
Thanks to everyone who played in our team, and especially to Karl for getting the team together and captaining on the day. I understand that, despite the result, everyone enjoyed the experience.
It’s the last match of the season and you’re facing your rivals for the league championship.
If you win, you win the league, if you draw there will be a play-off, and if you lose, they will win. The good news is that you have the white pieces.
Yours is the last game to finish. The match is level, you’re playing on increments, with a large crowd gathered round your board.
Deep into the ending, here’s your position, with White to move.
How will you continue? Can you find a way to win? Naturally, a player with your endgame skill will be supremely confident about winning a potential Q v R ending, even at 10 seconds a move.
Monday’s position, with Black to move, was taken from a game between Leo Wosner (Wood Green) and Alexander Distler (Athenaeum), played in a London League match in November 1948.
In those days Athenaeum was one of London’s leading clubs while Wood Green was a lot weaker: it’s very different today.
The game continued 27… Rxh3+! 28. Kxh3 Rh8+ 29. Kg4 f5+ 30. Kg5 Nf8! 31. cxd5 Rh6! and White resigned.
I’m sure everyone played Rxh3+ here, so you had to see 30… Nf8! and 31… Rh6! to score full marks.
This was taken from my latest Minor Piece, about Alexander Distler, which I’d recommend you read here.
Here, as a bonus, is another position from this article (with a rook moved to avoid a second solution):
White wins by playing 1. Ra1 Rg1 2. Rf1! – an idea that happens from time to time and is worth remembering. Not so easy if you haven’t seen it before.
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?
Two of my oldest chess friends have died in the last few days.
Jimmy Adams (1947-2026) was an outstanding chess historian, writer and editor whose books, often on players who just missed out on world championship opportunities, are very highly regarded.
Malcolm Lightfoot (1950-2026) was one of Richmond & Twickenham Chess Club’s strongest players between the late 1960s and the early 1980s, before moving to Suffolk, where he returned to chess in 2012.
Here’s a position from one of Malcolm’s games for you to analyse this week.
It’s White’s move in Lightfoot – Cowlrick (Charlton Open 1973).
Which moves would you consider? Which one would you choose? How would you assess this position?
Congratulations to Maks, who was the first to come up with the solution, and thanks to all who contributed to the discussion on our WhatsApp Knight School group.
Losing IM Gavin Wall last summer was an enormous blow to Richmond & Twickenham Chess Club in so many ways.
Gavin was our long-standing London League captain and top board in our Thames Valley League team, playing an integral part in the club as both a player and an organiser. and a cheerful, sociable and friendly presence at all our events.
He had also been, for many years, a vital part of Richmond Junior Chess Club. He was one of the club’s very early members back in 1975, and later returned to help at the club during the 1990s and early 2000s, running our morning group for primary school age children with me as well as doing a lot of higher level coaching and playing very many simuls.
Here he is last June, giving a simul at our twinning event with Fontainebleau.
We now have a trophy in his name which, with the blessing of his family, will be competed for in an annual challenge match between Richmond Junior Chess Club and Richmond & Twickenham Chess Club.
The inaugural match will take place at Orleans Park School, Richmond Road, Twickenham (10 minutes walk from our new venue at Cambridge Park Bowls Club) on Saturday 20 June, from 13:00 to 17:30. Two teams of eight players, rated from 1100 to 1700 will play two rounds of FIDE and ECF rated Standard Play, with a time control of 50 minutes per player plus 10 seconds per move. Before the first round the two teams will exchange team lists and the captains will toss for colour. The winning team captain will decide which colour his or her team will play with in the first round. In the second round, the teams will play with reversed colours, and the visiting team (RTCC) will swap players pairwise, so that their board 1 will play on board 2, their board 2 on board 1, all the way down the order. The games will all be broadcast live on lichess.org, chess.com and on chessbase.com. We hope also to broadcast live commentary on the match – more on this later!
Our team will be captained by Karl Stand. He’s already very close to a full team, so if you’re rated between 1100 and 1700 and would like to be considered, do get in touch with him quickly.
You can find more information on the RJCC website here.
