PS/SS Chess Game

[Alexander]

No: HPFGUIDX 40237

  Greetings!

  Has anybody tried to analyze the party of chess played by
Ron in PS16? We have only a few pieces of information, but
this may be enough to reverse-engineer at least the general
flow of the party, as well as the opening and ending.

  I'm not a good chess player, but I hope there are a few on
the List.

  So far, we have the following facts and assumptions:

1) Since chess set was enchanted by McGonagall, we are free
to assume that white played "McGonagallishly" - that is, in
the classic positional manner.

2) Of black figures, no knights, at least one bishop and at
least one castle have survived to the end of the game.

3) First "taking" move was made by white: Queen took Knight.
What opening could this be? Surely this is rare for a
"classic" player to make aggressive moves with a queen in
the very beginning of the party.

4) Throughout the game, white maintained the minor advantage
of force. Probably Ron was sacrificing quality to win tempi?

5) Last moves in the game were as follows:

  black: knight moves, check
  white: queen takes knight
  black: bishop moves 3 squares, checkmate

  Note that this ending is quite uncommon. If I understand
this correctly, then there's only a counted number of
situations where such ending is possible (save for mirror
positions).

  So, if any professional chess player wants to develop this
subject, I would be most interested to listen.

  Unfortunately, the party shown in the movie is different
from the one described in the book: in the movie, the first
loss of black was a pawn, not a knight.

Sincerely yours,
Alexander Lomski,
Gryffindor/Slytherin crossbreed,
always happy to throw weird ideas into community.

Sunday, June 23, 2002, 17:37 local time (GMT+2:00)