Checkmate Monday is here again and we start a brand new month with a look at some checkmates by Peter Romanovsky.
Romanovsky’s name may not be as familiar to readers as some of the people we have featured in our Checkmate Monday series but he was a very strong player, who won the Soviet Championship in both 1923 and 1927 (the latter title was shared with Fedir Bogatyrchuk).
Romanovsky’s chess hero was Mikhail Chigorin, who featured in our Checkmate Monday series last week.
Checkmating His Brother
The first two of today’s checkmates came in games against Romanovsky’s brother.
A. Romanovsky – Peter Romanovsky
Friendly Game, 1908
Black to play
Black pounced with:
28…Qxh2+!!
A queen sacrifice!
29.Kxh2 Rh8+
30.Kg3 Bh4+ and White resigned (0-1), due to the impending moves 31.Kh3 (or 31.Kh2) 31…Bf2 checkmate.
White had a couple of different ways to play during the moves, but ‘all roads lead to checkmate,’ as our readers can no doubt prove for themselves.
Another Queen Sacrifice
Peter Romanovsky – A. Romanovsky
Friendly Game, 1908
White to play
Peter Romanovsky has just sacrificed his queen again, to open up the Black king’s position. Checkmate is on the way.
36.Nh6+ Kh8
37.Rg1 1-0.
Black can delay – but not prevent – Rg8+ Rxg8 and then Nxf7 checkmate.
Classic Pattern
Peter Romanovsky – Yakov Rokhlin
Soviet Championship, 1927
White to play
This one follows a fairly simple pattern which is well worth knowing.
29.Qg6!
Threatening checkmate. Black resigned (1-0) because of 29…hxg5 (the only way to stop 30.Qh7 checkmate) 30.Qh5 checkmate.
Fabulous Finish
Vladimir Nenarokov – Peter Romanovsky
Soviet Championship, 1927
Black to play
This is an unusual pattern with which to finish on.
Romanovsky played:
48…Rg1+!! and White resigned (0-1) because of the line 49.Kxg1 gxf2+ 50.Kf2 Qg2 checkmate.
Wonderful checkmates by Peter Romanovsky!
Further Reading
To find out more about the life and games of Peter Romanovsky you are strongly advised to find Selected Games by Peter Romanovsky, with a very detailed biography by Sergei Tkachenko, recently published by Elk and Ruby.
We can still learn a great deal from the chess of a century or so ago.
Chessable Course
There are many more beautiful checkmating patterns in our course, The Checkmate Patterns Manual, by International Master John Bartholomew and CraftyRaf. This course won third place in our Chessable Awards for 2020.
There is a shortened, free version of the course here.
