"jonnywildboar" wrote in message
om...
I was watching a game at a local rapidplay congress, anyway, this guy
pushed his WHITE pawn for promotion but picked up a BLACK queen and
replaced the pawn on the 8th rank, could black then have moved the
queen and claimed it as his own ? (he just re-took it with a rook)

What a lovely gift.

No, but it would've been funny.

I think it was Blackburne who did something similar in the late 19th/early
20th century:

He was playing someone and losing (Blackburne had a habit of drinking
whiskey while playing, or so I've heard) and, seeing his position was
hopeless, he pushed his black pawn to the eighth rank and promoted it to a
white queen. His opponent immediately captured it, but Blackburne stopped
him, pointing out that it was illegal for him to caputre his own piece.
Flustered, his opponent blundered a piece and then immediately resigned. It
got some laughs from the kibitzers.

That's probably not exactly how it happened, but I'm sure the good Dr. Blair
can shed some light on the facts.



Regards,

Matt