Thursday, October 29, 2009

Superpippo and the Third Player


When a sports team has the enthusiastic support of the crowd, the players work harder and strive mightily to reward their fans. In a football game (NFL, FIFA) a strong crowd can have such an effect that they can be thought of as the "12th player" for the team that they are cheering on.

Chess is a game between two players, but sometimes the clock and the time controls weigh in as the "third player". This is often the case when one is playing the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+).

The first player may be struggling with his opponent, but the unexpected and unusual play of the Jerome Gambit will set time-consuming problems for the other side, and that is often enough to swing the "third player" into action.

To win the game, you have to Beat the Clock.

Here are a few examples from the blitz games of Superpippo. In all games he is White. It is Black's turn to move, but he has been fighting two "players"...





Two interesting positions, but Black's flag dropped in each, giving White the game.











More of the same: tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock...












Things looked bad for White, until time ran out... on Black.









These positions are getting silly, but when Black's time was up White grabbed the point.

















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