Endgame Caveat #5: Space Invaders

Researching for this post, I came across this 80's music video at YouTube. Cross-links at YouTube eventually led me to this free online Space Invaders game.

The Lucena position is an intermediate endgame position involving a non-rook pawn on its 5th rank, with the defender's king cut off from the queening square, generally precluding a Philidor defense.

The first caveat is that just because your king is cut off doesn't mean that the Lucena is inexorable. If Black doesn't pay attention, White could try 1. Ke2 Rf7? 2. Rf1!. Exchanging rooks allows a drawn pawn ending. If the Black rook moves away from the f-file, the White King crosses to g1 and White can choose either the Philidor (camp the rook on a3 until the pawn reaches g3, then go to a8 and harass the Black King from behind) or even the First Rank defense against a rook pawn or a knight pawn (just shuffle the rook back and forth from a1 to f1).

Black to play wins starting with 1... Kh4 2. Rh1+ Kg3 3. Rg1+ Kh3 4. Rh1+ Kg2 driving the rook away. After Rh6

Now 5... g3 6. Rg6 Kh2 7. Rh6+ Kg1 8. Rg6 g2 9. Rg7 sets up Lucena

Standard Lucena continues with 9... Re8+ 10. Kd2 Re5 11. Rg8 Kf2 12. Rf8+ Kg3 13. Rg8+ Kf3 14. Rf8+ Kg4 15. Rg8+ Rg5

The Space Invader will land at g1, spelling doom for the White King. Notice that the White King on d2 is too far after 16. Rxg5+ Kxg5 17. Ke2. From the previous diagram, had Black proceeded with 9... Rf5 10. Rg8 Kh2 11. Rh8+ Kg3 12. Rg8+ Kh3 13. Rh8+ Kg4 14. Rg8+ Rg5? 15. Rxg5+ Kxg5 16. Kf2 would be a draw.

Whew! So that's the background. From the first diagram, what if we move Black's King and Pawn back one step?

1... Kh5 2. Rh1+ Kg4 3. Rg1+ Kh4 4. Rh1+ Kg3 5. Rg1+ Kh4. Black's attempt to land the Space Invader is repelled because he can't protect the pawn at g5 while driving the rook away as he did before. The crucial thing is that the White Rook maintains distance from the Black King and Pawn. If White plays Rg2 to stall at any point, then he may be lost again. e.g. 1... Rf7 2. Rg2? Kh5! 3 Rh2+ Kg4 4. Rg2+ Kh4 5. Rh2+ Kg3 and the rook has to run, giving Black time to get into the Lucena groove with g4. Even spotting Black another file won't always give him the win.

As long as White keeps his king in the red zone and his rook at g1, he should be able to draw using the Space Invaders defense. One subtlety is that with White to move or a Black finesse, 1...Re7 2. Kd2? is losing. 2... Re5! protects g5 and creates enough forward momentum to let the pawn squeak to g4. 3. Kd3 (second thoughts?) Kf5! 4. Kd4 (4. Rf1+ Kg4 5. Rg1+ (5. Kd4 Ra5) Kf3 6. Rf1+ Kg2) Re4+ 5. Kd3 and either 5... g4 or 5... Rf4 stay on track toward Lucena.

There is still some trickiness to deal with. After 5... g4 6. Rf1+ Rf4 7. Rg1 Kg5 8. Ke2 threatens the aforementioned drawing maneuver, but calmly advancing 8... Kh4 removes the danger of Rf1. e.g. 9. Rf1 Rxf1 10. Kxf1 Kh3. After the trickier 5... Rf4 6. Ke2 g4! is the lone winning move followed by 7. Rf1 g3! another lone winner. Game Over, Man!

A long time ago, I read Jeremy Silman's When a Philidor Position Goes Bad. But missing so many RPvR endgames at ChessTempo continues to reinforce that it's not all just Lucena and Philidor.

The Karate Kid

When he made Daniel Russo wax his cars, paint his fence, paint his house, and sand his floors, Mr. Miyagi was secretly training him, not to be a slave, but to have strength and muscle memory to be able to block all kinds of attacks. This week, I overheard a martial arts instructor talk about the stages of training the other day. She highlighted these four:

• Unconscious Incompetence - You have no idea what you're doing right or wrong.
• Conscious Incompetence - You know what you're doing wrong but can't fix it.
• Conscious Competence - You are able to do things right if you think about it.
• Unconscious Competence - You do things right without thinking about it.

A lot chess training is pattern recognition and I agree it is important. If you know the beginning landmarks of all the checkmate patterns, then your analysis tree doesn't have to re-invent those checkmates every time you see them, especially when those set-ups show up at the end of your own analysis horizons. Wheels need not be reinvented every time. But when you get to the state of unconscious competence, it's hard to trust that stranger upstairs when you don't even know his name or party affiliation.

Perhaps this is a totally different part of chess competence, but when I analyzed a postmortem with future world champion Steven Zierk, I was dumbfounded at how quickly he could snap through variations to get to the truth about a line. I have difficulty buying into the oft-held forth de Groot assertion that around the expert-master level, the depth of analysis is not different, but the intuition and experience of evaluating different positions is where the difference lies. Arthur C. Clarke said "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Well, Zierk was so advanced, I thought I was watching wizardry. He seemed to be able to find a 10-ply refutation with ease. That kind of concrete ability I think is at least as valuable as a 9-ply calculating ability with a 1-ply correct intuition.

I listened to the entirety of Malcolm Gladwell's audiobook Blink. Here's an article about intuition pertaining to emergency room physicians that briefly mentions de Groot and some research gender-typing chickens. They used the term "sexing chickens", but I prefer gender-typing as a safer term. :)

Maybe I'm stubborn and mistrustful of the non-concrete. Or maybe de Groot's analysis doesn't even apply if I'm a Class A player masquerading as an Expert. Until I'm able to correctly verbalize or at least demonstrate deep-ply understanding of a complex tactic or position, I won't be focusing on my intuition to get me to the truth. I guess I'll be stuck at training stage 3 for a while trying for conscious depth and accuracy.

A Song of Ice and Fire

I spent most of my leisure time during the holidays reading A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. This is more or less a review with a bunch of quotes at the bottom. It's probable that I'll give away some ***SPOILERS BELOW***, so there's your warning.

Where to begin? It's difficult to summarize a work of such grand scope. Let's start on the positive. George R. R. Martin is a great writer. If you took the story-telling gifts of William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and J. R. R. Tolkein and rolled them all into one person, George R. R. Martin might be that person. He has a vivid style, flowery, but not excessively so. He has great instincts for pacing such that during climactic moments, the flowery words drop away and things happen in a rush. He has certain vocabulary mannerisms that seem very British ("arse") and some that seem a part of his invented fantasy universe ("Ser" instead of "Sir", "septs" instead of "churches", "sellswords" instead of "mercenaries"). There are also character mannerisms (every bearded character dribbles while drinking wine) and settings mannerisms (how many ways can you describe bone-numbing cold?) that mark his style. He also revisits about 10-15 themes such as "Winter is coming" (prudence) and "A Lannister always pays his debts" (monetary honor) that act as touchstones through the long tracts of pages.

The series is about a struggle to rule Westeros, a land of pre-gunpowder medieval chivalry, rival lordships, simmering feuds, legendary heroes, and ancient castles. Magic and mythical monsters seem extinct, although the very first chapter sets the tone for the return of an ancient inhuman evil. Martin's world includes a continent beyond the Narrow Sea that allows him to extend his tale beyond Western European culture into exotic Eastern cultures, such that if Scheherezade were an actual person, I would include her among Martin's inner muses. Most of the first book lays out the missteps and opening salvos of a war that engulfs a noble family of seven called the Starks. But the land is filled with carnivorous rivals: Lannisters, Targaryens, and Baratheons (oh my!). Against the backdrop of the rebirth of myth and magic, Martin weaves a Gordian knot of plots and murder mysteries among seven powerful families trying to grab the brass ring, or in this case an Iron Throne. Martin's characters run the gamut between stupid to genius, saintly to demonic, vivacious to listless and at least for the characters he concentrates on, they jump out from the page, warts and all. And just like in Shakespeare's tragedies, main characters die.

The deaths of main characters were jarring to me, especially since I hang on to childhood notions of "happily ever after". I hated the ending of Oscar-winning "Million Dollar Baby" and judging by the surplus DVD bin, so did much of America. But I was able to forgive Martin and keep turning the pages in hopes that enough of my favorite characters survive to justify my investment in their causes. But I now realize that perhaps Martin had little choice to create real danger and surprise. When I read the David Eddings' Belgariad (Pawn of Prophecy, Queen of Sorcery, Magician's Gambit, Castle of Wizardry, and Enchanter's End Game) or many of Asimov's works, I felt somewhat bored because their protagonists intelligently hatched plans, and executed them, perhaps improvising a little when things go wrong. Danger to main characters seems only a distant possibility. Martin actually gives his villains the elements of surprise, initiative, intelligence, and victory. Good guys haven't always won so far and perhaps I will grudgingly admit that the story experience has been richer for it.

This series is not for the faint of heart. George R. R. Martin originally started out in 1995 making a trilogy, but like the horizon, the final book keeps moving away, until now he estimates the final act to be book seven. He has only published the first five so far. The reading is voluminous. To finish book five, you have to read about 4,000 pages. Compare that to J. R. R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings at 1,200 pages. There is a cast of thousands and I am not exaggerating too much here. The books have appendices that show family trees out to four or five generations of semi-significant characters plus perhaps thirty minor families. There are so many names that it is almost a necessity to consult A Wiki of Ice and Fire to keep from being hopelessly lost in the crowd. The content of both the book and the first season on HBO I would definitely rate at NC-17. Martin does not shrink from describing the horrors of war including amputations and maimings, gang rapes, infanticide, and torture. He is also not one to gloss over consensual sexual situations; sex sells. But there is at least one child rape that I can think of and some tangential references to an underage sex trade from which I have some trouble withholding Victorian judgment. It does add realism and cultural richness to Martin's world in a time of war that such ugliness is not covered up.

Martin also tackles weighty issues within his fiction framework using a realistic and sometimes satirical viewpoint. In this endeavor, he follows Mark Twain whose Huckleberry Finn focuses on slavery and whose A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court take on chivalry. Knights follow codes of honor for each other, but treat the common folk as less than dirt. Slaves are not just servile robots, but human beings trying to survive through obsequiousness and insidious rebellion and the little resources that they can muster. One writer took Martin's work as a commentary on statecraft, concluding that Martin seems to advocate use of soft power.

In summary, the 4,000 plus pages of "A Song of Ice and Fire" are well worth the slog. For chess players, there are references to the "Game of Thrones" in the first three books. In book five, a game similar to chess named cyvasse makes its appearance. The plots to win the throne include of course the defeat of other kings with the death of the losing king the standard consequence. There's nothing like a tale of regicide to get a chess player's blood flowing. The characters in the first book roughly map out to a group of chess pieces:

King:	King Robert Baratheon
Queen:	Queen Cirsei Lannister
Queen's Bishop:	Lord Varys - "The Spider"
King's Bishop:	Lord Petyr Baelish - "Littlefinger"
King's Knight:	Ser Barristan Selmy - "Barristan The Bold"
Queen's Knight:	Ser Jaime Lannister - "The Lion of Lannister"
Queen's Rook:	Lord John Arryn
King's Rook:	Lord Eddard Stark
Pawns:	Robb Stark, Brandon Stark, Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Jon Snow, Joffrey Baratheon, Tommen Baratheon, Theon Greyjoy

Here are some quotes from the book that are tangentially relevant to chess.

Volume 1: A Game of Thrones
Ser Jorah Mormont: The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends. It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace. They never are.

Queen Cersei Lannister: When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.

Lord Eddard Stark: Lord Baelish, what you suggest is treason.
Lord Petyr Baelish: Only if we lose.

Volume 3: A Feast for Crows
Lord Petyr Baelish: Always keep your foes confused. If they are never certain who you are or what you want, they cannot know what you are like to do next. Sometimes the best way to baffle them is to make moves that have no purpose, or even seem to work against you. Remember that, Sansa, when you come to play the game.
Sansa Stark: What... what game?
Lord Petyr Baelish: The only game. The game of thrones.

Lord Petyr Baelish: I am tempted to say this is no game we play, daughter, but of course it is. The game of thrones.
Sansa Stark (thinking): I never asked to play. The game was too dangerous. One slip and I am dead.

Lord Petyr Baelish: I might have to remove her from the game sooner than I'd planned. Provided she does not remove herself first. In the game of thrones, even the humblest pieces can have wills of their own. Sometimes they refuse to make the moves you've planned for them. Mark that well, Alayne, It's a lesson that Cersei Lannister still has yet to learn.

Volume 5: A Dance with Dragons
Haldon Halfmaester: The day you beat me at cyvasse will be the day turtles crawl out of my arse.

"Prince Aegon," said Tyrion, "since we're both stuck aboard this boat, perhaps you will honor me with a game of cyvasse to while away the hours?"
The prince gave him a wary look. "I am sick of cyvasse."
"Sick of losing to a dwarf, you mean?"
That pricked the lad's pride, just as Tyrion had known it would. "Go fetch the board and pieces. This time I mean to smash you."

They played on deck, sitting cross-legged behind the cabin. Young Griff arrayed his army for attack, with dragon, elephants, and heavy horse up front. A young man's formation, as bold as it is foolish. He risks all for the quick kill. He let the prince have first move. Haldon stood behind them, watching the play.

When the prince reached for his dragon, Tyrion cleared his throat. "I would not do that if I were you. It is a mistake to bring your dragon out too soon." He smiled innocently. "Your father knew the dangers of being over-bold."
[..]
Smiling, he seized his dragon, flew it across the board. "I hope Your Grace will pardon me. Your king is trapped. Death in four."
The prince stared at the playing board. "My dragon..."
"...is too far away to save you. You should have moved her to the center of the battle."
"But you said..."
"I lied. Trust no one. And keep your dragon close."
Young Griff jerked to his feet and kicked over the board. Cyvasse pieces flew in all directions, bouncing and rolling across the deck of the Shy Maid. "Pick those up," the boy commanded. He may well be a Targaryen after all.
"If it please Your Grace." Tyrion got down on his hands and knees and began to crawl about the deck, gathering up pieces.

The thin man shifted an onyx elephant.
Across the cyvasse table, the man behind the alabaster army pursed his lips in disapproval. He moved his heavy horse.
"A blunder," said Tyrion. He had as well play his part. "Just so," the thin man said. He answered with his own heavy horse. A flurry of quick moves followed, until finally the thin man smiled and said, "Death, my friend."

Tyrion Lannister: I play better with a full belly and a cup of wine to hand.

Quiescence

Someone once asked where I get the pictures posted here. I usually just use keywords on Google Images to find the picture of my heart's desire. I suppose I'm remiss in crediting the sources. Today's image comes from http://wallbase.cc/wallpaper/13271 where you can get a wallpaper-sized image. It's not a natural photograph, but it fulfilled two of my major criteria: a lone tree reflected in a placid lake. The thoughtful person and random birds were a bonus as was the general grayscale dreariness.

This blog has been frozen, reflecting a coldness I've had toward chess for an extended period. I keep thinking Caissa's absence might make my heart grow fonder, but prolonged estrangement seems to better follow "Out of sight, out of mind." Have I forgotten what it's like to have fun playing chess? The rush of solving a problem, the triumph of victory, the mystery of Zoroastrian symbolism. The siren's song is faint. Sometimes, I visit ChessTempo to test my mind against the middlegame and endgame puzzles, but sometimes it makes me fall asleep at my computer or prompts me to curse my failings. My blogroll seem similarly inactive these days, most surprisingly Castling Queenside, but I still click over to the three who seem at least somewhat active. Temposchlucker took a summer hiatus but seems back to the tantalizing world of trying to organize the cognitive hash that we amateurs call our chess thinking. I tried to add my two cents, but he shot me down with a dismissive "Nope!"

My attitudes towards chess are much too messy to summon the discipline of organizing my thoughts. I'm trying to get past the first few pages of Charles Hertan's Forcing Chess Moves who urges "use computer eyes." Perhaps it's too simplistic to blame mere geometry, but when I miss a problem, I tell myself that I just didn't look deep enough or wide enough. Full width-depth search is a labyrinth that only computers can hope to navigate by brute force. Perhaps we humans can only hope to cut through the thicket with concepts and patterns as our signposts. On ChessTempo's endings, I groan when I get a QP v Q problem. When I miss it, the winning move is tagged with "Win in 48 moves". As if that's humanly possible. I do see patterns in the RB v R endings now and I daresay I can get a decent percentage correct. But the RP v R endings are still quite confusing which is aggravating because it offends my delusion that knowing Lucena and Philidor are enough.

Sometimes, the move that was too lateral for my narrow mind is tantalizingly close.

I saw that Qd1+, if legal, would be checkmate, but I couldn't find Qg4 skewering the Re2. Why? Because I was too focused on not losing the queen or the rook.

And the two recent problems on Temposchlucker's blog:

Here, Tempo said I was in good company as GM Rowson couldn't see this through the thicket. But even being given Qd5+ Ke3 Qg2 c1Q Qg5+ Kmoves Qxc1, I couldn't see it all the way through. I saw Qd5+ Kc3 Qd4+ Kb3 Qa1 prevents both queening and the bishop pawn stalemate. The real problem came from Qd5+ Ke2. At no time did I even consider Qa2. Perhaps in retrospect, I could say "When there is a bishop pawn stalemate possibility, pin the pawn from the drawing corner" might be a helpful recitation to keep my sieve-like brain from dropping this lesson. "Depth and breadth," I say. "Insufficient signposts," someone else might say.

And here I missed almost everything because I had such an attachment to my evaluation that Black was in danger of one or other family check. Did I prune these variations before they even budded? Or did I have human bias? I saw that Qg5+ Kf1 Qg2+ Ke1 Qg1+ Kd2 Rd8+ Kc2 probably was going nowhere. I tried to consider Rd8 when I knew it was strong, but pruned it as soon as I thought of Nf7+ Kg8 Nxd8, forgetting that Qxf7 puts the losing ball back in White's court. So I opted for Qg5+ Kf1 Rd8 hoping that the full family check Nf7+ Kg8 would end with Nxg5 Rd1#, Qxg5 Rd1# or Nxd8 Qxc5. Never in my wildest dream did I consider Qf8+ Rxf8 Nf7+. Zwischenzug is German for "How the heck did I miss that?!"

My fear of losing material seems to be hindering many of my tactics. Vinny tells Josh, "See, he didn’t teach you how to win. He taught you how not to lose. That's nothin’ to be proud of. You’re playin’ not to lose, Josh. You’ve got to risk losing. You’ve got to risk everything. You’ve got to go to the edge of defeat! That’s where you want to be, boy. On the edge of defeat!" I'm pruning variations before they get good. Whether it's Hertan's computer eye blindness, or whatever I choose to call it, it's all discouraging. Chess isn't 100% discouraging; maybe only 75% so. One bright spot was this problem:

I was proud of myself for finding Re2+. But I didn't find it from the initial position. Only when it was one ply away did I see it. I wrap up with my own theme for the top picture: "Do not prune a variation until quiescence has been reached."

The Terminator

I have never been into slasher movies, but if you replace the hockey-mask-wearing psychopath with a cyborg assassin, and throw in some time paradoxes and impending Armageddon, then I'd be popping some popcorn. TV Tropes gives The Terminator as an example of the archetype called Implacable Man.



Since his announcement on Monday that he fathered a love child about 14 years ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger has been all over the news.

Coincidentally, I had been reviewing a problem I had missed at ChessTempo.com. It had the following initial position. Black to play and win.



I had missed the problem on February 5, 2010 by playing Bh1. How do I know such detail? I broke down and bought a one-year Gold Premium Membership for $35. The information geek inside me couldn't resist the siren call of database drill-down to try to figure out why this game eludes me. Temposchlucker's post on the drills he was doing made me realize that I have to get back to fundamentals of tactical vision and calculation.

If you haven't tried your hand at the above diagram, then
***SPOILER ALERT***

Before the diagram, White had just won a pawn by playing the sequence:
40.Bd3xNf5 exf5
41.Qxf5

Black has impressive batteries along the a8-h1 diagonal and the a8-a1 file. Is White safe? Apparently not. The solution to the diagram begins with

41...Ra1

Of course White can't capture because it brings the Black Queen to his back rank with deadly consequences. Perhaps he can wait for escape later, but for now he can try to hunker down with

42. Qf4

The key move brings the Terminator onto the scene. (See if you can guess why I call the queen the "Terminator")

42...Qa4!
43. Qd2

White runs for cover.



Now what? You might be tempted to put the queen in a mating battery with 43...Qe4, but after 44.f3 Rxc1+ 45.Qxc1 Qxf3 46.Qc8+ Kh7 47.Qc2+ g6 48.Qd2 Qh1+ 49.Kf2 Qxh2+ 50.Ke3 50.Qxg3+ Kd4, Black has a winning endgame, but more technique will be required.

A young Alexander Ivanov, playing in I think an under-26 championship in Riga in 1980, goes for the killer move.

43...Qd4!

Black keeps advancing to unsupported positions, purposely hanging the Black Queen as if it lacked any regard for personal safety. But the Black Queen is immune to capture (44.Qxd4 Rxc1+ 45.Qd1 Rxd1#) as is the Black Rook (44.Rxa1 Qxa1+ 45.Qe1 Qxe1#)

44.Qe1

White tries one more retreat before throwing in the towel. White now has both heavy pieces on the back rank with his own battery threatening to capture Rxa1. Black plays his ace in the hole and only now goes to the a8-h1 battery. Now that g2 can't be protected by playing f3, Ivanov played 44...Qe4!, forcing resignation as the best White can do to avert checkmate is 45.Qxe4 Rxc1+ 46.Kg2 Bxe4+ a rook-down endgame with no chances.

Back at the 43rd move, I wondered what if 43.Qe3? It still protects the rook right?



43...Qd1+!
44.Qe1



All four heavy pieces are on White's back rank attacking each other!

44...Qxe1+
45.Rxe1 Rxe1#

The unstoppable Queen reminded me of the unstoppable hanging Rook in the Steinitz-Von Bardeleben "Battle of Hastings" game.

That terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead. — Kyle Reese

I'll be back. — T-800

Greed

"The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much."

- Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), Wall Street (1987)

"There are seven deadly sins, Captain. Gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, pride, lust, and envy."

- Detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman), Se7en (1995)

When the subject of the Seven Deadly sins comes up, I can remember them without too much difficulty because of the movie Se7en starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. I can picture the scene for Greed of a lawyer having died in his office trying to excise and place a pound of his flesh onto a scale.

On Saturday, Mark Madoff was found dead in his home of apparent suicide on the two-year anniversary of his father's conviction. Mark was the 46-year old eldest son of Bernard Madoff, who is serving a 150-year sentence for committing perhaps the largest fraud in history via a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Romans 6:23 says "For the wages of sin are death..."

Greed seemed to be the theme of the last two games I played in the Holiday Swiss. In the first, I was the beneficiary of my opponent's excess greed. For you readers, I'm giving away some of my opening secrets as this is my gambit variation of the 2...Nf6 Scandinavian when I let White hold the extra pawn and offer a second one on move 8.

It was fun being a gambiteer since I could foresee the negative consequences for my opponent giving into greed. To demonstrate that this glass-house dweller is not here just to cast stones, here is the more recent game where I was summarily punished for my own greed mixed with a little sloth for not calculating thoroughly.

So the wages of greed in chess are checkmate.

In Jonathan Rowson's book, The Seven Deadly Chess Sins, he spends some time in the Extended Preface discussing sin and theology and its relevance to chess. It's quite a good read that makes me sorry I haven't made more time for more of Rowson's writings. He enumerates the deadly chess sins as thinking, blinking, wanting, materialism, egoism, perfectionism, and looseness. Specifically, he tries to equate materialism with gluttony, to which I cried foul because I thought materialism was squarely equal to greed.

It doesn't seem fair that for the most part, avaricious computers can do well with greed and materialism because any negative repercussions are usually within their brute force calculating horizons.

"What shall it profit a man if he gains material but loses the game?"

- Caissa 16:26

Moria and Lucena

From Wikipedia:
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Moria (Sindarin for "Black Chasm") was the name given by the Eldar to an enormous underground complex in north-western Middle-earth, comprising a vast network of tunnels, chambers, mines and huge halls or 'mansions', that ran under and ultimately through the Misty Mountains. There, for many thousands of years, lived the Dwarf clan known as the Longbeards.

From Baby-Names-Meanings.net:
Lucena - Illumination. Light. Mythological Roman Goddess of Childbirth and Giver of First Light to Newborns. Also Refers to Mary As Lady of the Light.

Speak, friend, and enter. The magic word to open the door into rook endgames is Lucena, which is actually a class of positions with material of King, Rook, and Pawn against King and Rook.

The Pawn must be a non-rook pawn advanced to its seventh rank. The attacking king stands on the queening square of its own pawn. The attacking rook cuts off the defending king from the pawn by one file (e.g. pawn-file-king). The defending rook hinders the escape of the attacking king from the queening square.



The winning maneuver begins with a check from the attacking rook to create some breathing room for both the king and the pawn.
1.Re1+
If 1...Kf6, then 2.Kf8 and g8=Q on the next move. Note that if Black tries to checkmate with 2...Ra2 3.g8=Q Ra8+, 4.Re8 is conveniently available. If 1...Kd6, White may have to deal with a counterattacking king after 2.Re4 Kd5, but 3.Rg4 should win. So the generic case is
1...Kd7



Now comes the key move of the Lucena position.
2.Re4

The purpose of the move is to provide cover for the White King who must dodge a series of checks from the Black Rook. The White Rook will block the check just as the White King disconnects itself from defense of the pawn on g7. Hooper and Whyld's Oxford Companion to Chess (1992) attributed the phrase "building a bridge" to Aron Nimzowitsch.

Now, a typical sequence of moves would be:
2...Rh1
3.Kf7 Rf1+
4.Kg6 Rg1+
5.Kf6 Rf1+
6.Kg5 Rg1+
7.Rg4



As the attacking rook intercedes in this bridge-building maneuver, my mind drifts to the Lord of the Rings scene where the Fellowship of the Ring is running from the Balrog found in Moria. His fellows having safely crossed the Bridge of Khazad-Dum, Gandalf in the middle of the bridge turns to face the Balrog and shouts:

You cannot pass! I am the servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor. The dark fire will not avail you, Flame of Udun! Go back to the shadow!

You shall not pass!

Then Gandalf sunders the Bridge and the Balrog falls, but pulls Gandalf down with his whip. To the Fellowship, Gandalf's last words are, "Fly, you fools!"

It is not until the return of Gandalf the White in the Two Towers are we told what happened.

"[We fell] through fire and water. From the lowest dungeon to the highest peak I fought him, the Balrog of Morgoth. Until at last, I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin upon the mountainside. Darkness took me and I strayed out of thought and time. Stars wheeled overhead and every day was as long as a life-age of the earth. But it was not the end. I felt life in me again. I've been sent back until my task is done."

You can watch the epic battle here.

If Black chose to exchange rooks
7...Rxg4+
8.Kxg4
it would look as if Gandalf (the White Rook) and the Balrog (the Black Rook) fell into the abyss and disappeared, leaving the diminuitive Ringbearer to reach the queening square and win the battle for Middle Earth. Note that because of the first check in the variation, the Black King is separated enough from g8 that he cannot prevent queening.
8...Ke7
9.g8=Q

As useful as Lucena would seem, I have not actually used it in a tournament game. Of 425 tournament games I have played since 1991, zero have ended in a Lucena position. Three have ended in Philidor type draws. My other heavily Tolkeinized post parallels the Battle of Helm's Deep.