JOHN: Welcome back to Televised Competitive Chess here on PBS. I’m John Loftus, alongside my partner Lee Randolph. Now Lee, when we went to the commercial break, Black had just made a move you described at the time as brilliant. Can you further elaborate?
LEE: Thank you, John. You can see the position now.
Black’s last move was: 36 … Qb4 and, as you can see, he is now threatening White with a back-rank mate from both his Queen and his Rook at c8.
JOHN: Can you explain a back-rank mate for both our viewers?
LEE: Certainly. You can see White’s King is contained in the corner of the board with his own Pawns holding him in place. The bottom row is completely empty and the only piece that White can use to block the attack is his Queen.
JOHN: Well, it’s White’s move now. How does he stack up?
LEE: White is severely disadvantaged in this position. In fact, it’s difficult to think of a worse position other than outright checkmate. White has played incredibly poorly this game, and it’s obvious in this position. Right now, Black has a certain checkmate in two moves unless White plays perfectly. White might be able to pull out a draw here.
JOHN: What would you recommend White do then?
LEE: It is tempting to bring his own Queen down, but he can’t plant the Queen on the first rank or it’ll just be taken by Black’s Queen, which guards the e1 square. However, White needs to do something. He could move Queen to a1, which would guard against an immediate back-rank mate, but I can’t imagine Black wouldn’t move Queen to c4 to create a battery which would win. White’s only hope is to move one of his Pawns to give himself an escape. But objectively, White is completely losing. This is one of the worst games I’ve ever seen televised.
JOHN: Okay, and White looks like he’s getting ready to move. And…it’s going to be a Queen move after all!
LEE: He’s obviously not listening to me.
JOHN: And…oh my goodness. Queen to b8, with check. What is he thinking?
LEE: Oh, this is terrible! Just terrible. Of all the moves that he could have done, White is simply giving away his Queen now! I thought he couldn’t possibly play any worse than he had, but he proved me wrong.
JOHN: Wow. Well, this is a no brainer. Black is going to take White’s Queen with his King—
LEE: Actually, he can’t do that. White’s Bishop at g3 guards that. I can only surmise that White overlooked the fact that Black can take with his Rook anyway! Or maybe he was thinking of trading his Queen for Black’s Rook—a terrible mistake, since Black’s Queen can still mate! And now, with no Queen to block, if White doesn’t move a Pawn next move, it’s an instant back-rank mate!
JOHN: And here goes Black, taking the Queen.
LEE: I cannot believe White is playing so bad. White is going to capture the Rook with his Bishop, which will guarantee a back-rank mate with Queen to e1! I wonder how this man ever got rated in the first place. This is simply dismal playing. He’s been making the absolute worst possible moves ever in the history of chess.
JOHN: And here he goes. And…wait, he’s not going for the Bishop.
LEE: No, he’s doing a Knight move! That’s even worse! He needs to move a Pawn or else…
JOHN: Oh my.
LEE: What?
JOHN: Checkmate? Is that checkmate?
LEE: It can’t be.
JOHN: But look. Black is in check, but he can’t move his King. And nothing can take the Knight. It’s checkmate!
LEE: White got lucky, that’s for sure. He made some of the stupidest moves ever in the history of chess, but managed to hold on.
JOHN: It’s almost like he planned it from the start that way.
LEE: No, he couldn’t have. My game theory analysis says he made the worst possible moves ever up until this point.
JOHN: Hmmm. If it was a normal person, I’d disagree. But since it was God playing…
LEE: Like I said. He got lucky.
