Tiny Tim and Scrooge Play Chess

For those of you who celebrate Christmas, a wonderful little addition to Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." For those of you who do not celebrate Christmas, enjoy the chess!

From the MuskogeePhoenix.com

Published December 24, 2007 05:04 pm - Chess: Tiny Tim’s chess moves
By Eric Morrow
Submitted Story
Tiny Tim v. Scrooge

It is a little know fact that after the events in Dickens’ “Christmas Carol” Scrooge and Tiny Tim regularly played chess together. This week’s position is from one of those games. The game occurred on Christmas day in 1853, ten years after Scrooge’s night with the three ghosts. Tiny Tim is playing white, Scrooge, black.

With a smile Scrooge said “Ba humbug” to Tim’s threats and pinned white queen’s with his bishop at b7. Scrooge thought he was about to win Tim’s queen and the game. Tim saw, however, that Scrooge’s greed had given him an unexpected Christmas gift. Please try and find how Tim saved his queen and secured a winning position.


In chess notation, the board is a grid: the vertical columns are numbered "1" through "8"; the horizontal rows, "a" through "h". Each square on the board is identified by a specific letter and number. For example, if the white rook at d1 were to move to d3, the notation would be rd3 (r=rook, q=queen, x=takes, etc.).

Tim first checked black by moving his rook at d1 to d8. Because black’s pawns pin their king to the 8th rank, the queen must capture the rook. This deflection-sacrifice saves the queen because it leaves the black bishop unprotected. After qxr Tim then captured the bishop with his queen.

White threatens to pin black’s king by moving its rook to a8 with the support of its queen. Scrooge craftily moved his knight to a6. Now if Tim gets greedy and takes the knight with his rook, Scrooge could perpetually check the white king with his queen. Tim thus moved his rook over to c1.

This renews the threat of the rook moving to the 8th rank and pinning the black queen. Scrooge saw that his best reply was to accept the loss of his knight and move it to c7 (although c5 is very similar).

After Tim took the knight with his queen, Scrooge could check the white king. But only temporarily, as the white king is checked across the board towards the protection of its queen and rook. Once the checks ended Scrooge resigned.

The lesson here is to not overvalue one’s own attack and scoff at your opponent’s potential threats with a silent “Bah, Humbug.”