oday I would like to wish a Happy Administrative Assistants Day to all of the hard working Admins :-)

 

   In the position on the right it is White to move. 

 

   Answer below.

   Last week 49 year old Jamie Moyer picked up a well earned win for the Colorado Rockies, the baseball team here.  My friend and super active chess player Dean Brown was there to watch it live.

 

   None of Moyer's pitches was over 79 mph.

 

   Moyer has 268 wins over 27 years of playing in the majors.

 

   Baseball players are old when they hit 30. They are really old when they turn 35.

 

   Beyond that? Very few player can play past age 35. Moyer at 49 not only won a game, he's pitched well the first 3 games this year, and some consider him the best pitcher on the team.

 

   Pretty amazing!

 

   How does he do it?

• He's smart. He doesn't strike people out.
• He gets them to hit the ball to his defense.
  
• He doesn't make avoidable mistakes (walking batters)

   Meanwhile Philip Humber of the Chicago White Sox pitched the 21st Perfect Game in Baseball's 100+ year history.

   Once every 20,000+ games.

 

   How does this young guy make history?

• He doesn't make avoidable mistakes (walking players)
• doesn't try striking out the opposition.
  
• He wants the batter to hit the ball to his guys. 

   He almost certainly won't be pitching when he's 40 but like Jamie Moyer he doesn't make the careless, obvious, avoidable mistakes.

 

   In chess it is the same way.  You can win a lot of games just by not making the careless, obvious, avoidable mistakes.

 

   Here is the complete game:

 

[Event "2012 Championship"]
[Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"]
[Date "2012.02.01"]
[Round "1"]
[White "haritini"]
[Black "averagepianist"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1243"]
[BlackElo "1180"]
[PlyCount "17"]
[EventDate "2012.??.??"]

1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 d6 3. Nf3 Be6 4. Bxe6 fxe6 5. d4 Qf6 6. dxe5 dxe5 7. Bg5 Qg6 8.
Qd8+ Kf7 9. Nxe5# 1-0 

 

   You can play through this game here: http://www.redhotpawn.com/gameanalysis/boardhistory.php?gameid=9037899.

 

   Answer: 

 

   This game was featured in the blog post "The Lewis Men and the Titanic" on Redhotpawn.com, which you can read here: http://www.redhotpawn.com/blog/blogread.php?blogpostid=98.

 

   Here White punishes black for moving his queen out too early with the move 7. Bg5.  Black is then faced with the choice of losing their queen or getting mated, which is what happened in the game 7...Qg6 8. Qd8+ Kf7 9. Nxe5#

 

 

   Happy Tactics!

 

   Your Friend,