Going through old games is fun. They could play chess, too, back then. Here’s a position from a team match (Manchester Chess Club v. Kolner Schachklub) played in Cologne in 1906. In eight years the battlefield for these two clubs wouldn’t be on a table.

Wahltuch found the best way to beat Oppenheim. Can you?

Solution:

It didn’t take a grandmaster to figure out the g-file is the key to all this; however, Wahltuch comes up with a very pretty idea, which is the best of several winning alternatives here. Yes, both 1.Ke2 and 1.Kd2 would both win in the end, but there is a much prettier way to go:

1.Qf3 Qg6 [1...Qxh1+ 2.Qxh1 Kh8 3.Bxf8; While we would have preferred that Black took the queen, Black was going to fight on regardless. The very pretty idea of the queen offer was: 1...Qxf3 2.Rg1+ Kh8 3.Bg7+ Kg8 4.Bxf6+ Qg4 5.Rxg4#] 2.Bxf8 Rxf8 [2...Kxf8 3.Qxa8+] At this point, Black could resign, as noted above, and White decided to teach the fellow a lesson in how to win in an ending. If you’re new to chess, play through to the king and pawn ending and see how White wins: 3.Kd2 Kh8 4.Rag1 Qh6 5.Qf5 Rd8 6.d5 Ne5 7.Kc2 Qh4 8.Rg3 Qc4+ 9.Kb1 Qd3+ 10.Qxd3 Nxd3 11.e4 Nxf2 12.Re1 c4 13.Kc2 Nd3 14.Rxd3 cxd3+ 15.Kxd3 Kg7 16.Kd4 Kf8 17.Rc1 Ke7 18.Rc7+ Rd7 19.Rxd7+ Kxd7 20.e5 fxe5+ 21.Kxe5 Ke7 22.h4 h5 23.b3 b5 24.b4 a6 25.a3 f6+ 26.Kf5 Kd6 27.Kxf6 Kxd5 28.Kg5 Ke4 29.Kxh5 Kf5 30.Kh6 Kf6 31.h5 and here Black did resign as after 31… Kf7 32.Kg5 White gobbles up the queenside pawns before Black can take the h-pawn and hustle back.

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