Today, the letter "b", and here we shall look at Blackburne's and Boden's mate. Joseph Henry Blackburne (1841–1924) earned himself the nickname "The Black Death" (can you think of a more badass name for a chess player?). The ingredients of Blackburne's mate are, as usual, an obstructed king, a knight and a bishop phalanx.
The English appear to be the champions of bishop mates! Samuel Standidge Boden (1826–1882), a contemporary of Blackburne, lends his name to another nasty bishop mate, preferably used against careless queen-side castlers. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce, Boden's mate:
Once again, a jolly good mating to you!
(Solution to the quiz: 1. Qxh7 leads to Anderssen's mate / 2. Rf8# and we have ourselves an Arabian mate / 3. Qxa7+ sets up Anastasia's mate Ra3#)
3 comments:
Awesome!
Excellent posts Christian!
Blackburne is one of the local chess players from where I live. A heavy drinker and fighter (even at tournaments!) his biography is a good read.
A simple google search will bring many short bios on him.
I like that fact that he use to go through a bottle of whiskey when performing simultaneous matches :-)
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