The Mother of All Bongclouds
Submitted by
on Wed, 12/03/2008 at 3:50am.
Sir George Alan Thomas. His name may not ring a bell… To me he was a total stranger until I stumbled on some of his chess games. In an attempt to spice up my chess life I bought a number of books on (to me) unorthodox chess openings. One of these books was Neil McDonald’s book “Starting out: the dutch defence”. Dutch for Dummies that is, and although I still wonder why I am even bothering to learn stuff I will probably never dare to practice over the board, this book was worth buying since it brought me “The Mother of All Bongclouds”.
Chess.com members that occasionally read forum posts must have seen some great threads on the Bongcloud attack, named after it’s great inventor Lenny Bongcloud, the unimployed hippee who plays gitar realy bad for doller menu. If you take the time to read this thread…
http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/the-life-and-times-of-lennybongcloud---and-ratings
…you will notice that it took readers a while to understand the genius of the new and improved way to play chess. If you’re too lazy to read it, so be it (hey, apart from the serious subject you’re missing out on a couple of good laughs!), but to sum things up… the new aim of the game is to get your king to the other side before your opponent does so! Below you'll find what I consider to be Lenny's most impressive victory with the Bongcloud.
Now what does all of this have to do with George Thomas!? I think he is very inspiring to all Bongcloud wannabees. Mr Thomas, who lived between 1881 and 1972, was a gifted chess player who managed to beat a number of strong masters of his time (Capablanca, Maroczy, Euwe to name a few). And, apart from becoming British chess champion twice, he also was a world class badminton and tennis player. His multitalent even showed on the chess board, because, maybe without knowing, he was one of the first players to beat an international master with a Bongcloud attack. If you play the dutch defense, or know your chess classics, this game must look familiar to you, but now you'll see it in a completely new light:
Up till move 10 Thomas was forced to play a delayed Bongcloud, keeping the king on the last rank. It is not as pretty as Lenny's game, but see what a bit of patience can do! Lasker did not see the black king coming, otherwise he would not have opened the h file with his queen. The black king, slippery as an eel, outplays the entire white army and finally claims victory on g1.
After the game, according to Bill Wall on his excellent website... http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lab/7378/thomas.htm ... Sir George would have congratulated his opponent with the words "that was very pretty". I hate to think that a fellow chess.com member is wrong, but I like to believe that after the game Sir George sank to his knees, looked up and wispered "Thank You, that was very pretty!"