"Sterten" wrote in message
...
sorry, I have no more info about the game.
This is from the novel "the eight" by K.Neville ,
where the action of the novel is apparantly
emulated by that chessgame.
So, maybe you get some more clues by reading the book,
but I doubt it.

Alternatively, can someone send me the games
of the candiates tournaments in ASCII ,
so I can write a program to check for these conditions ?

Bob Musicant answered:

As implied by one of the other answers in this thread, there would be no
reason to expect that Neville would necessarily have used a Candidates' game
as the model for one in her book. Her chess knowledge was not impressive.

She read some autobiographies of chess masters.
According to the review in the St. Paul Pioneer Press-Dispatch, the Game in The

Eight is based on a real chess game which was played in a world championship.
Katherine Neville won't tell people which game it is, but she says she "chose
one that had the most moves in it and tailored the plot to that game. If you
understand chess, you can figure out what game it is, what grand master played
it and in what year."

Neville:
"Clue: it was a game used in international world-champion level competition, in

which a black pawn, protected by a knight (Solarin) and a rook (Nim) approaches

the queening square, and white concedes."

source:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aege.../comments.html.

It is a number of years since I read The Eight, but my recollection is that
in a modern championship (US or World?) she has a Two Knights Defense with
4. Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Nxd5 being played, unlikely enought in itself, and after
the age-old sacrifice 6.Nxf7, she has the onlookers "astonished," that
"White would sacrifice his knight for a mere bishop." She did NOT say, "for
a mere pawn," or "a mere bishop pawn," but "a mere bishop." Makes you
wonder whether she knew anything more than the moves.

it's even worse in the German edition. "both had out a pawn and a knight"
(1.e4,e5 2.Nf3,Nc6) was translated with :"both captured a pawn and a knight"
"F.tucked his king behind some pawns" : protected his king by pawns
(1.e4,e5 2.Nf3,Nc6 3.Bc4,Nf6 4.Ng5,d5 5.ed5 Nd5 6.Nf7,Kf7 7.Qf3)
and continues: " and S. moved his queen to attack the knight"
7.Qf3,Ke6,8.??? . It can't be 7.Qh5?,Kg8, 8.Qf3 ?

but the worst is that after 6.Nf7 , the best US-woman-player with ELO
2400 commented: "black should move his queen and resign on the rook"
this is what my German edition tells !

For some good games worked into the text there are "The Dragon Variation"
and "The Tower Struck by Lightning."

these are books which you recommend ?

OK, the above 2 knight's defence is not (I think) the game after which the
book was tailored. The longest WCh game where black won was
Janowsky-Lasker(8),1910 . But they exchanged both rooks early.

I wonder what she meant with "international world-champion level competition".
If it were a world championship, then she probably wouldn't say :
"international world-champion level competition".


thanks also for the other posted games. But none of these is satisfactory.
Also, I think that the black queen was probably captured or exchanged
shortly before the protected black pawn threatened to queen.


Guenter