The e-pawn emperor's next e4-e5 'monthly update' will be posted on this Internet site towards the end of August, and in the meantime he will, as always, reply personally to as many e-mail messages as possible which come to MrMo@ChessPublishing.com. Right now, though, there's a tasty new collection of fresh games, puzzles, and other treats to bring you endless hours of enjoyment in a mega bumper-size July update. So let's swiftly move up a gear or two to tackle the first challenge coming rapidly towards us...

Mr Mo's July 2000 Bonus Brainteaser

Consider the following position which very closely resembles actual events from the game J.Peters-S.Jones played earlier this month in Los Angeles, USA:

The opening phase mirrored that of game G7.4, but now we are well beyond that stage, and a king-size puzzle is coming your way...because the black monarch shown on h8 may actually be on g8! Can you decide which of the two squares is the king's true location, given the fact that White (to move) can very quickly win a sizeable amount of material?

A solution will appear in the next 'update' on this site at the end of August.

June Hero Puzzle Solution

New Index of Openings

Solution to Mr Mo's June 2000 Bonus Brainteaser

The brainteaser was as follows:

Consider the following position which arose after Black's 31st move in the encounter S.Vysochin-E.Rozentalis at the Bank Pocztowy Open tournament in Bydgoszcz, Poland, on 29 May 2000:

To give you some of the previous history in the game, it began as a Petroff Defence (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6), a pet opening with Lithuania's GM Eduardas Rozentalis. However, on this occasion he got into difficulties which resulted in him losing an exchange at move 23. Nevertheless, he fought on stoically, and was rewarded when White now erred with 32 Bd3? Can you discover how Black profited from that mistake?

Solution:

The game ended abruptly with 32...Ng3!! 33 fxg3 Bc5+ 34 Kf1 Qh1+ 35 Ke2 Qxg2+ 36 Ke1 Qxg3+ 37 Kf1 Qg1+ 0-1, with White resigning in view of 38 Ke2 Qf2#.

The Birthday Game

This regular feature puts the spotlight on a player of the past or present whose birthday was or still is a day in the current month. For example, Spain's super-GM Alexei Shirov (actually born in Riga, Latvia, on 4.7.1972) is a truly world-class 'July birthday' player, and for our game G12.16 I've chosen his speedy 15-move victory over GM Igor Efimov at the 1991 Gausdal Arnold Cup tournament in Norway.

Would YOU like to star in The Birthday Game? If so, please send an e-mail to MrMo@ChessPublishing.com sometime between the 1st and 15th day of the month preceding your birthday month, and include the following information to be considered by Mr Mo: your name, date & place of birth, and one of your own games starting with 1 e4 e5 (or another acceptable move-order such as 1 e4 Nc6 2 Nf3 e5 or 1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 e5). Although annotations are not strictly necessary (since Mr Mo will always analyse the game too), your own personal notes would certainly be most welcomed. Please do mention where and when the game was played, and also state the players' names (together with ratings, if applicable).

Don't be shy-let us celebrate YOUR birthday too!

By the way, since James Bond is about the same age as myself---we both 'arrived on the scene' in 1962, as my delivery doctor knows like 007's Dr No!---I'll conclude this section with 'Happy Birthday' in 007 different languages that I've had at least some exposure to:

Happy Birthday (English)

Shengri kuai le (Mandarin)

Heureux Anniversaire (French)

Gelukkig Verjaardag (Dutch)

Herzliche Wünsche zum Geburtstag (German)

Buon Compleanno (Italian)

Felicidades (Spanish)

Thanks

Special thanks to Noel Aldebol, Sonny Kamberi, IM Andrew Martin, and Tom Woods, all of whom sent in very useful information which certainly enhances the quality of this e4-e5 Internet site.

June Hero Puzzle Solution

New Index of Openings

Dedication

This tenth update (after the previous launch material) is dedicated to Dr Norman Young and his charming wife, Ilse, whose wonderful hospitality during the recent Staffordshire Millennium Congress certainly helped me very much to achieve one of my best-ever tournament results.

New Highlights

Tons of fresh mouth-watering goodies await us, including a big helping of Ruy Lopez games in the trio G13.36, G13.37 and G13.38, where you'll also find other handy supplementary bonuses.

The King's Gambit always provides lots of excitement too, and this month one can enjoy seeing the Nimzowitsch Counter-Gambit at its best in game G4.22. Our Hero of the Month joins in the fireworks with the wild Wilkes-Barre Traxler variation of the Two Knights Defence in G12.16, and the ride continues unabated through double twists in the Petroff pair of G7.7-G7.8 plus the vivacious Vienna Game duo of G3.8-G3.9.

If you can't sleep after so much drama, then the scorching of the Scotch Game in G9.12 could make you think of having an early fry-up for breakfast, and how about some Danish bacon to go with the Danish Gambit in G1.4!?

In general, the action-packed battles are made even more irresistible by the presence of related challenging puzzles, which can also be seen in the section called "Puzzle Paradise".

And the feast is still far from over yet...! Further courses include the very select stimulating material that appears in the Reflection Zone, but only subscribers can access that section and all the juicy annotated games too.

By the way, at the special request of subscriber Livio Olivetto, from this month onwards all new main games on this e4-e5 site will be labelled with an ECO code from the range C20-C99, to match the particular opening variations featured. The codes provide an extra means of identifying games containing one's own favourite opening lines, and so the codes will be given in the Index of New Games. Some people may like to construct, for their own personal use, a complete index of games according to ECO codes, but since I know that many readers would find its appearance to be rather abstract, I shall leave it as a project to be done at home only by people who are really big fans of ECO codes!

M.O. Moves

It's a personal choice, but for me three of the Most Outstanding Moves from the games within this month's update material are a tremendous trio of knight sacrifices: GM Jonny Hector's 13...Nxe5!! in G13.36; Jon Benjamin's 10 Nxd5!! in the 1975 encounter G7.7; and in G4.22 the very cheeky check 13...Ng3+! by someone who's trying so hard to remain anonymous through modesty here!!

Rewind Reward

The key idea here is that (although in general we focus on recent happenings) it still pays off to study some memorable older material. For instance, in G7.8, American IM Dean Ippolito shows us how to deal with a potentially dangerous gambit by White- and for contrast just look at what happened to Black in G7.7. Our Hero of the Month demonstrates one of his favourite White weapons within the Ruy Lopez in G13.36, and last month's hero is back as Black in the Scotch Game of G9.12. A real Scot (guess who!?) takes on the King's Gambit in G4.22, and superstar GM Alexei Shirov rolls up White like a whirlwind in the wild world of the Wilkes-Barre Traxler variation speeding through G12.16.

Those encounters actually happened years ago, but these games being selected again now are still highly instructive (and entertaining too!).

July 2000 Hero Puzzle

Hero of the Month

There are 720 ways of listing the six letters in ANDREW in different orders. Can you find a couple of ways which actually make proper six-letter words? An answer will appear in next month's 'update', but meanwhile enjoy all the goodies awaiting you now on this site...

Solution to June 2000 Hero Puzzle

The puzzle was as follows:

Gary Lane's birthday is on the same day of the year as a certain German GM whose initials are T.L. Can you name the mystery grandmaster?

Solution:

Thomas Luther.

Motto of the Month

The previous launch and update material laid the foundations for further exciting adventures with 1 e4 e5 as our chosen starting point. Even when the variations get quite tricky, it's still a lot of fun to experience them together, spurred on by the following inspirational words from Albert Einstein: "In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity".