Lessons From Kenilworth III

MANY years ago, before I had even seen a chess clock, never mind used one, I played a friendly game against another child, whose name I can no longer recall.

What I can remember is that he got upset because, although I correctly, as he saw it, said "Check!" when I attacked his king, I refused to say "Queen!" when I attacked his queen.

He insisted that saying "Queen!" was required by the rules of chess - just as much as the rules, in his view, prescribed saying "Check!"

I cannot recall how we resolved the matter, but I was reminded of the incident after my round-four game (I had taken a half-point bye in round three) in the English 65+ championship.

The game reached the following position in the opening, which became an Accelerated Dragon after starting as a Modern.

White has just played 8.Bc1-d2

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Clearly Black has to be wary of a discovered "Queen!"

However, even if it were White to move in the diagrammed position, there is no useful move available to the white knight.

Indeed the two commonest continuations in ChessBase's 2024 Mega database are 8...Nf6 and 8...Qb4.

In the game Black played 8...Rb8, after which a white knight-move is again of no particular consequence.

Instead I played 9.Qf3, when Black has to prevent 10.Qxf7+ as well as making sure the white knight has no useful discovered attack on the black queen.

One way of doing this is 9...f6?!, but such an ugly and weakening move could only be a last resort.

A game in Mega24 saw 9...Nf6, which Stockfish16 and Komodo14.1 agree is best, albeit reckoning the sharp 10.0-0-0 would give White a slight edge.

Our game featured another move that appears in Mega24, 9...e6?

The Mega24 game continued with 10.0-0, after which the engines reckon White has the upper hand, although Black went on to win.

No better is 10.Nd5, the engines claiming the reply 10...Qc5 gives Black a slight edge.

However 10.Nb5! is a very strong discovered "Queen!" - so strong that the engines agree the game's 10...Qxd2+!? is the best reply available.

LESSON: a discovered attack on the queen is to be as feared as a discovered attack on the king, and should be countered unless 100% sure it is harmless (and even then it will often do no harm to avoid such a discovery anyway).