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© Copyright 2002, Jim Loy
The following game is Fool's Mate:
1 f3 e5 2 g4 Qh4++
That's not very pretty, but we are told that it has occurred once or twice in children's tournaments. And this idea comes up on occasion, in other positions. Here is a game from I. A. Horowitz's Chess Traps Pitfalls and Swindles (you might want to buy the book, just to read the amusing commentary on this game):
I.A.Horowitz-P.R.O.P, Manhattan Chess Club, remove White's
a-Rook
1 d4 Nf6 2 Nd2 e5 3 dxe5 Ng4 4 h3??? Ne3 5 Nf3 (White cannot
take the Knight because of mate in 2) 5...Nxd1 6 Kxd1 and White
eventually won, believe it or not.
Except for the missing White Rook, that is identical to the "famous" game Gibaud-Lazard, Paris 1924, with White resigning after Black's fourth move. Here are a few more wins along that particular diagonal:
Damant-anonymous, London, 1932
1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 Bd3 Nf6 4 e5 Nfd7
5 e6 fxe6? 6 Qh5+ g6 7 Qxg6 hxg6 8 Bxg6++
Teed-Delmar, New York 1896
1 d4 f5 2 Bg5 h6 3 Bf4 g5 4 Bg3 f4 5
e3 (threatens 6 Qh5++) 5...h5 6 Bd3 (threatens 7 Bg6++) 6...Rh6 7
Qxh5+ Rxh5 8 Bg6++
Greco-anonymous, 1620?
1 e4 b6 2 d4 Bb7 3 Bd3 f5 4 exf5 Bxg2 5
Qh5+ g6 6 fxg6 Qf6 7 gxh7+ Nxh5 8 Bg6++
Palau-Nollman
1 d4 f5 2 e4 fxe4 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 Bg5 d6 5 f3 exf3 6
Nxf3 Ng4 7 Bd3 Nbd2 8 Qe2 c6 9 Ne4 (threatens 10 Nxd6++) 9...Nxe4 10
Qxe4 Bxf3 11 Qxg6+ hxg6 12 Bxg6++
Somers-anonymous, London 1923
1 e4 Nc6 2 Nf3 e5 3 Bc4 d6 4 0-0 f5
5 d3 Nf6 6 Nc3 h6 7 Nh4 Ne7 8 Nd5 Nfd5 9 Qh5+ g6 10 Nxg6 Nf6 11 Nxe5+ Nxh5 12
Bf7++
Boom-Fick, Holland 1913
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0
Nxe4 6 d4 b5 7 d5 Ne7 8 Re1 Nc5 9 Nxe5 Nxa4 10 Qf3 f6 11 Qh5+ g6 12 Nxg6 hxg6
13 Qxg6++
Brinckmann-Kieninger, Ludwigshafen 1932
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 f5
4 Nc3 fxe4 5 Nxe4 Nf6 6 Nxf6+ gxf6 7 d4 e4 8 Ng5! (improves on 8 Nh4)
8...Bb4+ (8...fxg5 loses the Queen) 9 c3 fxg5 10 Qh5+ Kf8 11 Bxg5!
Ne7 (11...Be7 12 Bh6+ Kg8 13 Bc4+ etc.) 12 Bc4 d5 13 Bxd5 1-0
(13...Qxd5 14 Bh6+ Kg8 15 Qe8++).
Michaelsen-Michaelsen, Germany 1984
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Nc3 f5 4
d4 fxe4 5 Nxe5 Nf6 6 Bc4 d5 7 Nxd5 Nxd5 8 Qh5+ g6 9 Nxg6 Nf6 10 Bf7+ Kxf7 11
Ne5+ Ke6 12 Qf7+ Kf5 13 g4++
MacKenzie-Hollins, London 1893
1 e4 e5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 f4 d5 4 fxe5
Nxe4 5 Nf3 Nc6 6 a3 Bc5 7 d4 Nxd4! 8 Nxd4 Qh4+ 9 g3 Nxg3 10 Nf3 Bf2+ 11 Kxf2
Ne4+ 12 Ke3 Qf7 13 Kf4 g5++
Lazard-Crepeaux, Strasbourg 1924
1 e4 e5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 f4 d5 4 fxe5
Nxe4 5 Nf3 Nc6 6 Be2 Bc5 7 d4 Nxd4 8 Nxd4 Qh4+ 9 g3 Nxg3 10 Nf3 Bf2+ 11 Kxf2
Ne4+ 12 Ke3 Qf7+ 13 Kd3 Bf5 14 Qg8 Ng5+ (wins the Queen) 0-1.
I wrote this article from scratch in 2002. Then I found almost the entire article (all of the above games except for two) in one of my notebooks, from 1970 (in descriptive notation).