Parting With the Lady: Hanken's Ghost

Today we’ll enjoy a lighthearted (with a tad of “morbid” tossed in) look at the time-honored queen sacrifice. I’m calling it “Parting With the Lady” in honor of the late Jerry Hanken, who wrote a number of excellent articles with that title.

At some point, grandmaster Joel Benjamin -- who put out the fantastic chess humor magazine Chess Chow -- wrote a very funny article titled “Parting With the Gentleman.” I suppose I could follow this article up with one devoted solely to games where people mate themselves, but I’m not sure if that would be very well received.

Worse yet, perhaps people would emulate it, and we’d see a spate of self-mates in tournaments all over the globe! Hmmm...lemming chess...it just might catch on!

I often do trips down memory lane, so when Hanken’s ghost came to visit me the other day I was reminded of internet announcements of his death in 2008.

However, he didn’t die in 2008. Turns out some idiot made it up, and Jerry Hanken himself had to set the record straight:

I have always wanted to be able to quote my favorite humorist Mark Twain who said "reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

Anyway, I will resist the temptation to write my own obit. I simply can’t go now as I must wait at least until I play in my 50th US Open in 2017 and then I will have to put it off until I play in my 60th consecutive American Open in 2024. After that, I’ll think of something.

"Down you mongrel death, back into your kennel, I have stolen breath from a reed of fennel..." –- Edna St.Vincent Millay.

Jerry Hanken by queene4

Sadly, he really did die a year later, in 2009. (I visited him in the hospital and, as fate would have it, was the last chess player to see him alive.)

Jerry Hanken’s great loves were chess and Shakespeare, and it’s clear that his Parting With The Lady is a play on words from Romeo and Juliet (parting is such sweet sorrow). Perhaps Hanken is the only person in history to seamlessly merge both chess and Shakespeare into one homogenous whole.

So Jerry, I’m going to mix your Shakespearian-bred title with my Rocky Horror Picture Show brain (please read the prose in puzzles 8 and 9). Ready? Okay, let’s do the time warp again!

Puzzle 1: 

Puzzle 2:

Puzzle 3: 

Puzzle 4:

Puzzle 5:

White is no less than THREE pawns up. However, the Canadian grandmaster Biyiasas was known to be an escape artist, and when White made an error on his last move (White moved his Rook from a4 to a8) Black instantly grabbed his chance! Can you see it?

Puzzle 6:

Earlier in the game, Benko sacrificed a piece for a crushing attack. He was easily winning, but a series of incomprehensible moves (no doubt caused by Benko’s typical time pressure) allowed Fischer to turn the tables.