With half an hour to go before the last train back to my neck of the woods, I agreed to sit down for a game of Blitz chess using a rather fine set of "Tal"** chess pieces and an antique chess clock that dates back to the "good old days" of the USSR - at least they were good days for Soviet chess players (until a certain Bobby Fischer came along and threw a spanner into the Soviet chess machine).
I'm not sure how accurately you can set a Soviet-era analogue chess clock, but we set it for a 7-minute game. As the minute hand gets closer to 12 it lifts up a red flag (how appropriate) and if your flag drops you lose on time.
Now, I am the Hiroshima drunken pub chess champion - at least, in my own estimation - and I got off to a good start as White by going a knight up fairly early on, and getting a time advantage by playing my opening moves with some celerity.
Black's Teleporting Bishop
A few moves after the photo was taken, I had a Rook on F1, which my opponent promptly took with his c5 Bishop! Neither of us noticed that the Bishop had crossed over from the black diagonal to the white diagonal in order to capture my Rook. I thought I must have miscalculated - not that there is much calculating in drunken Blitz chess!
Then my opponent wanted to take back a move after taking his hand off the piece, but that is a no-no and so he accepted the blunder. After the game, which my opponent lost on time when his red flag fell - the photographer pointed out what the Bishop had done, much to our amusement!
And so ended another fine evening of board-games, wargames and Soviet-era chess (minus Soviet era skill) at the Board Room, and I made it in good time to catch the last train home.
Cheers!
David Hurley
#InspiredFocus
** NOTE: Mikhail Tal was one of the great chess players of the Soviet era. He was born in Latvia and was the World Chess Champion 1960-61. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Tal
The "Tal" chess set is a reproduction of the 1960 chess set that is named in honor of Mikhail Tal. The original set was designed specifically for the 1960 World Chess Championship match between Tal and Mikhail Botvinnik, held in Moscow. Tal won the match, becoming the eighth World Chess Champion
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