Blind Swine

Early this month, I wrote about the term "blind swine" as it is used in chess literature with links to Edward Winter's historical inquiries. Logically, it seems to me, rooks on the seventh rank that can find checks, but not checkmate are blind pigs (or swine). Two rooks who cannot find checkmate still might prove their worth as a drawing resource.

This morning, an opening blunder dropped some pawns and I struggled on, reaching a rook ending that should have been hopeless. 

White to move

35.Rb7

I prepared to double my rooks on the seventh. Black cannot prevent this, but can render my rooks ineffective several ways:

35...h5 creates checkmate threats

35...Kh8 allows Rg8 to defend the g-pawn

35...a5 protects on pawn and leaves open the possibility of meeting 36.Rcc7 with Rg4

35...e4??

My opponent made one of the few moves possible to throw away the win.

36.Rcc7 Ra2+ 37.Kh3

Black to move

Black can no longer prevent endless checks from my rooks and the game was drawn by repetition after 37...g5 38.Rg7+ Kf8 39.Rbf7+ Ke8 40.Re7+ Kf8 41.Rgf7+ Kg8 42.Rg7+ Kf8 43.Rgf7+ Kg8 44.Rg7+ Kf8

The Soul of Chess

After dropping a couple of pieces in a ten-minute game, my position was near hopeless. My only chance was the difficulty my opponent faced in finding the correct defense.

White to move

34.Rg1!

The only move to preserve the win.

34.Re1, which looks reasonable on the surface, fails. 34...d2! 35.Rfxe2 Rc1 36.Kg1 Rxe1+ 37.Kf2 d1Q 38.Rxe1 Qd4+ picks up the knight and leaves queen vs. rook with pawns on both sides.

34...Rc1

A desperate gamble.

35.Rxc1 d2 36.Rff1

Black to move

Black can take either rook, but not both. White wins.

In the game, White, with 4 1/2 minutes remaining, spent half a minute and did not find the critical Rg1. He took my rook and then resigned after 34...e1Q+.

One of my students who also did not find 34.Rg1, did find 36.Rff1 after my 34...Rc1?? 34...d2! would have won for Black.

My pawns rolling down the center of the board were inspired by many historic games. My students are seeing the well-known game McDonnell,A. De Labourdonnais, L. 1834

White to move

After 31...Bd8

32.Qc4 Qe1 33.Rc1 d2 34.Qc5 Rg8 35.Rd1 e3 36.Qc3

Black to move

36...Qxd1 37.Rxd1 e2 0-1

I am also showing students the end of  Petrosian,T. -- Fischer,R. 1958

Black to move

63...Kd2 64.Rxc2+ Kxc2 65.Kg5 c4 66.f6 c3 67.f7

Here Fischer offered a draw and Petrosian agreed, but with my students, we carry the game further to assure than they understand why the resulting queen vs. c-pawn endgame is a draw.

Of course, François-André Danican Philidor's analysis in Analyse du jeu des Échecs (1849) also inspired my play. It was in this book that Philidor offered his famous line, "pawns are the soul of chess."

White to move

38.f7 Rf8 39.Nf4+ Kg7 40.Bh5 and White's pawns cannot be stopped.

Checkmate Pattern: Two Pigs

The pattern that I call Two Pigs is usually referred to as the “Blind Swine Mate”. It is an unfortunate and illogical term that violates an unsourced quote credited to Dawid Markelowicz Janowsky (1868-1927). The unsourced quote has been in circulation at least since 1953, the original publishing date of The Art of Attack in Chess.

“The pair of rooks which “grunt out check” on the seventh rank but cannot get a sight of mate were once nicknamed ‘blind swine’ by Janowski” (Victor Vukovic, The Art of Attack in Chess [1993], 73).

If they are blind, they do not find checkmate.

I knew less about the history of this pattern name when I created my self-published A Checklist of Checkmates twenty years ago. The contents of page 15:

Edward Winter often has written about the appalling number of unsourced quotes in chess literature.* Regarding the Janowsky quote, see Chess Notes 3494, 3525, and 5160 (scroll down). The last of these was prompted by my correspondence with Winter, noting two instances when Janowsky had two rooks on the seventh rank and could manage only a draw. Although the quote is unsourced, one can imagine Janowsky grumbling about pigs that cannot see checkmate. However, in the game that I cited in A Checklist of Checkmates, his blind pigs saved an otherwise lost game.

Such was my idea in a blitz game yesterday, when blind to the advantage that I had, I set up a draw that was not forced until my opponent returned the favor.

White to move

39.Rff7??

39.Rc8+ Kd7 40.Rg8+- was the winning line.

39...b1Q??

After 39...Rxe4+, Black still gets a queen, while White's blind swine cannot force a draw.

40.Rfe7+ and the game was quickly drawn by repetition as Black cannot escape endless checks.

In another online game in July, I was on the receiving end of the Two Pigs checkmate, except that in this case another piece (knight or king) was needed, and so the pattern is not the same.

White to move

29.a6

This desperate try failed. 

29.Rxd5 was another possibility that fails.

29...b6 30.Rc1 Rg2+ 31.Kh1

31.Kf1 Ne3+ 32.Ke1 Rbe2#

This is a pattern that Raf Mesotten, The Checkmate Pattens Manual (2022) calls Vukovic's Mate (45-49). It appears to be an instructive book, but like every other book on the subject, it passes on common attributions grounded in bad history and unsourced quotes (see "Pillsbury's Mate"). To Mesotten's credit, he notes clearly that his sources for the pattern names were chessgames.com, Wikipedia, and Chess Tempo (7).

31...Rxh2+ 32.Kg1 Rbg2+ and I resigned as a knight-assisted "Ladder mate" was coming.

The Two Pigs Mate pattern appears in this game played on Internet Chess Club in 2001.

White to move

21.O-O?

White is much worse, but castling here gives Black a forced mate in three, which I promptly executed.

21...Rgxg2+ 22.Kh1 Rxh2+ 23.Kg1 Rcg2#

*I also have some articles on the topic and related topics, such as "Plagiarism and Related Crimes".

Be Alert

It is one thing to solve tactical exercises, but quite another to seize such opportunities when they arise in our games. Often we get caught up in our plans to such an extent that we carry on with a sequence of moves unaware that an opportunity for advantage arose.

I noted in "Two Donner Quotes" that A Class players have defects in their game. Yesterday, in the last round of the Eastern Washington Open, my opponent, a strong A Class player, missed an opportunity after my 23...Ng4? I had considered 23...b5, which Stockfish sees as slightly better for Black.

White to move

Five moves later, it was my turn to miss a chance for a decisive advantage.

Black to move

What would you play in these two positions?

Checkmates Missed; Checkmates Found

This morning during a momentary lapse of reason, I threw away a game.

Black to move

I played 40...Bxh2?? and was mated.

A couple of days ago, in a game that I won, I missed not one, but two forced checkmates in two moves.

White to move

30.Be4+ did not throw away the decisive advantage, but did extend the distance to mate. After 30...Kb8 31.d7 Bxe4 32.d8Q+ Kxb7, I had a second opportunity to play a simple mate in two.

White to move

The game continued 33.Rc7+ Kb6 34.Rxf7+ Black resigns.

Later that same day, I found a mate in four after my opponent threw away a winning position with 28.Ng6??

Black to move

Last night, just before bed, I managed to find a forced mate in six in a three minute game after my opponent played 31.Rcc7

Black to move

I have not given any of the checkmate sequences, leaving them for the reader to find.

Knight over Bishop

I had this position this morning. I was White.

Black to move

41...Bd3??

It is clear that 41...Be2 would have prevented, or at least delayed my plans to remove Black's g-pawn, but 41...Ba2 also keeps the draw in hand. To wit, 42.Nf3 Kc4 43.Ne5+ Kb4 44.Nxg6 Kxa4 45.Ne5 Bg8 46.Kxf5 c4 and White will be forced to give up the knight for Black's last pawn.

42.Nf3+- c4 43.Ne5 Bc2 44.a5!

This move was necessary to the win.

44.Nxg6 Bxa4 45.Ne7+ Ke6 46.Nxf5=

Black to move

Analysis diagram

Black's only drawing move may not be so easy to find here. What would you play?

44...Kc5 45.Nxg6 Kb5 

White to move

46.Ne5

Stockfish favors 46.a6! The lines following are pure engine.

46...Bb3 47.g6 Kxa5 48.g7 c3 49.bxc3 Bg8 50.Kxf5 Kb5 51.Kf6 Kc5

White to move

52.c4

White wins more quickly with a simple technique: Ke7 or Nf7 with the idea of trapping the bishop. 52.Nf7 Kc4 53.Kg6 Kxc3 54.Nh6 Be6 55.Nf7 and the pawn promotes.

52...Kd4 53.Kf5

I appeared to be oblivious to the technique mentioned above.

53...Kc5 54.Ke4 Kd6 55.Kd4 Ke7

White to move

56.c5!

I found the only winning move.

56...Kf6 57.Nd7+ Kxg7 58.c6!

And again, only one move wins.

58...Be6 59.Ke5

59.Kc5 also wins

60.Nc5! Be2 61.c7 Bg4

White to move

62.Ne6+

Black's last few seconds of time ran out.

1-0

National Grade Level Championships

A national youth event is coming to my city in December. Registration is open for the National K-12 Grade Chess Championships, which will be held 12-14 December 2025 at the Spokane Convention Center.

Website for the event: K-12 Championships.

Errors Aplenty

Misplaying a Rook Ending

Why are rook endings difficult? The rook's move is arguably the simplest in chess, yet a rook ending where one side has an advantage of one pawn can prove vexing.

This ending arose in a game-10 Arena on chessdotcom. Both players had slightly more than three minutes remaining after 67 moves. I had Black.

White to move

68.Kf5?

Now, the position is equal. 68.Kd5 leads to a win.

68...Rh1

68...Rd1 also holds the draw.

69.Kg4 Rg1+ 70.Kf5 Rh1 71.Ke4

Black to move

71...Kf6?

71...Rf1 was the only move.

After the subsequent 72.Rf5+, Stockfish gives 72...Ke6 as equal, but an advantage of two pawns after 72...Ke7. However, experience analyzing many rook endings with Stockfish has taught me that anything under +4 should not be considered a decisive advantage. 72...Ke7 likely also hold the draw.

72.d5!+-

White is again winning. The next errors cam after thirteen more moves.

72...Ra1 73.Re6+ Kf7 74.Ke5 Re1+ 75.Kd6 Rf1 76.Re7+ Kf6 77.Re8 Kf7 78.Re7+ Kf6 79.Re4 Rc1 80.Kd7 Kf7 81.d6

Black to move

81...Rc5 82.Re7+ Kf8 83.Kd8 Rxh5 84.d7 Rc5

White to move

85.f5?

85.Re5 secures the full point

85...Rxf5?

Black puts White back in the driver's seat. Four possible moves along the c-file would have held the draw.

Despite Black's failure here, White did not find the right idea, although he came close.

86.Re8+ Kf7 87.Kc7 Rc5+ 88.Kd6 Rc1

White to move

89.Re7+

This move does throw away the win, but White nonetheless missed the right idea.

89.d8Q Rd1 90.Kc5 Rxd8 91.Rxd8 Kf6 92.Rd5 and Black's king cannot help the advance of his pawns.

89...Kf6

Three moves later, the game was drawn by repetition.