Swindles 1

A swindle is where you achieve a win or a draw from a lost position in an amusing, clever, or sometimes dirty way. I have a reputation as a swindler, so I thought I'd put together a series of posts showing the best swindles I've achieved. There's a bit to learn, but it's mostly here for entertainment, so sit back and enjoy the silliness.

This article Swindles 1 covers the genuine swindles - where I could walk away with my head held high for doing something clever to save the game. Later articles Swindles 2 and Swindles 3 cover where I played dirty or got lucky and where the anger level from my opponents afterwards would have been higher.

Rook and knight combo

A rook and a knight in a corner can check a king forever if they co-ordinate on the right squares. Here, I am losing the game so I set it up while the opponent is oblivious. 36 Rd7 puts the rook in the perfect position where it will stay forever, with the knight checking repeatedly after that. And as a bonus, if the opponent tries too hard to escape the checks by going into the corner, they'll end up getting mated...

Rook pawn and wrong-coloured bishop

The opponent can't win with a rook pawn and a bishop that doesn't cover the promotion square. So here I could sac the knight, run to the corner and survive.

Sneaky pawn play

Often in pawn endings, surprising moves lurk. Here that's shown clearly as 42 e6 is not a move that immediately comes to mind. It first achieved a draw, but I then turned it into a win by abandoning the defense of the queenside to go and give checkmate.

Active play

If you're losing, just being very active with counterplay can create chances. Here I essentially just threw all my remaining pieces at their king and finished with a nice knight sacrifice.

Pawn breakthrough

Another pawn breakthrough. Amazingly this position is winning for black after white's 38th move.

Opponent swindle attempt

My opponent's move c5 here was a great swindle attempt. Rook takes bishop in response loses; incredibly, there would then be no way to stop a pawn promoting. I managed to catch myself and delay capturing the bishop to move 33, but what a great attempt. This is also an example of how computers don't know how to play practical chess: The computer assumes perfect play so marks 32 c5 as an inaccuracy despite it being a fantastic practical attempt to turn the game around.

Swindling Magnum Opus?

This 140-move game was essentially one massive swindle for the last 100 moves. It came down to my final pawn and I think was the most exhausting 3+2 chess game I've ever played. I sac'd the rook in a way that would guarantee promotion, then despite still being lost, somehow cleaned up to win with that new queen, all on a two-second increment. At 140 moves, it's my longest ever decisive game.