jonnywildboar wrote:

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)


While not quite the same, you may find the following extract from the 1920
BCM obituary of Daniel C Griffith (the founder of the now defunct Hampstead
Chess Club and a co-founder of Athenaeum Chess Club ) amusing.

'Habitues of the Old Crosby Hall at luncheon, or later of the Ship and
Turtle, will not easily forget his happy smile as a particularly fine trap
secured a win in an apparently lost situation. One one occasion, against a
player very intent on his attack on one side of the board, he Queened a
Pawn on the other, to lose it to a Rook. A spectator silently handed it him
back under the table. The Pawn was again Queened, and yet a third time, the
unsuspecting opponent blandly taking it off each time, far too intent on
his attack to detect the deception, which caused much laughter among the
onlookers.

'Mr. Griffith retained much of his chess powers to the end, and was
representing Hampstead as late as 1918. But it was his innate courtesy and
good temper which brought him such a host of friends. A good loser, he
never showed any elation at winning, and always put the success of the club
before his own.

'In his early days he played frequently with Steinitz and Zukertort, and was
a great admirer of J.H. Blackburne, whose services at a blindfold or
peripatetic display he frequently advocated to the members.'


One of the principals of Hampstead was obliging enough to let me see this.


Regards,


Simon.