| Gunsberg 2005-04-11, 5:59 pm |
|
Ken Blake wrote:
quote:
> In news:1112568247.674782.61340@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com,
> Gunsberg <gunsberg@kasparovchess.com> typed:
>
>
>
>
> *Necessary* underpromotion is another thing entirely, not
> necessarily to avoid stalemate, but often to create a winning
> knight fork. As a matter of fact, underpromotion to a knight, is
> the most common underpromotion. Underpromotion to a bishop is
> much rarer.
Precisely why, as you can see above, I specified that I was
referring to "underpromotions to a Bishop"
quote:
>
> But Ian, I'm sure, is well aware of both reasons for
> underpromotion. What he was asking about is the kind of whimsical
> underpromotion that occurred in this particular game--where the
> Bishop and the Queen were equivalent.
This is not so clear. Burton wrote the following:
ian burton Mar 20, 8:15 am
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess.misc
Subject: Promotion to a Bishop
"In today's Amber blindfold game between Shirov and Kramnik, won by
Kramnik, Kramnik promoted a pawn to a Bishop. It was mere whimsy on
his part, but is there another game between grandmasters in which such
an underpromotion has taken place. Does Kramnik go down in history as
the first to do so?"
--
Ian Burton
You seem to think that Burton is interested in finding **another**
instance of "such an underpromotion [to a Bishop]" which is "mere
whimsy" on the part of the Grandmaster.
I interpreted Burton's query to be a request to ascertain whether
the Kramnik game is the first instance of underpromotion to a Bishop in
a game between Grandmasters. I don't believe that he was stipulating
that the underpromotion to the Bishop also had to be whimsical. In
fact, it is reasonable to infer from Burton's query that he was
interested in games featuring underpromotion to a Bishop, where the
move was NOT **mere** whimsy.
In any case, it is likely that most of the underpromotions that
occur, even between Grandmasters, are whimsical in nature. Moreover, as
the Krabbe column points out, they are liable to be less interesting
than the examples of underpromotions that are born of necessity.
For what it's worth:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/chess2/minor.htm
IN THE DATABASES TODAY, a few hundred games with Rook and Bishop
promotions can be found, but the majority are silly jokes. Sometimes an
underpromotion is used to remind the opponent that it's time to resign.
Often he does. Sometimes players, especially young amateurs (but even
Topalov has done it in a tournament game against Kramnik), will promote
to Rook or Bishop when that new piece has to be captured anyway.
There are also joke promotions that, without having anything to do
with stalemate, still have some practical significance; when the choice
between capturing the new piece and not capturing it is not obvious.
quote:
>
> --
> Ken Blake
> Please reply to the newsgroup
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