The Immortal Mr. Magoo

Comments by: Bill Melvin

Chess players often analyze their game with their opponents afterwards, but never have I seen any chess players discussing naming a game. Oh sure, we have the Evergreen Game and the Game of the Century. We even have the Game they Showered with Gold Pieces and the Immortal Zugzwang. Doubtless other games exist which are much less famous but have been given names. Presumably the winner or some magazine columnist comes up with the name.

I've never played a game which has been given a name, but recently had a magical hour in Atlanta where everything went better than planned. Hmmm... what to name it? Kyle Therrell gave me a shiny penny for my efforts, but Game they Showered with a Shiny Penny left something to be desired. Perhaps the character of the game itself can be used to come up with a name? The game, which was certainly extraordinarily brilliant, was not exactly planned. It seems that I did not see everything at the time of the crucial combinations and I was indeed quite fortunate that things worked out as well as they did. Yet, the combination was evidently quite sound as a strong computer played the same moves as I did starting with move 17 and considered me to be ahead by over a Pawn at all times.

This chess game reminds me of Mr. Magoo: the cartoon hero who is aware of little but always comes out of dangerous situations doing just fine. Everything that Mr. Magoo tries, no matter how reckless, turns out fine. Yet this is no doing of Mr. Magoo, he is just consistently in the right place at the right time. This time, the man was in the right place to get a chess game named after him! I now present: The Immortal Mr. Magoo.

White: Melvin, Bill/2170
Black: Cunningham, Robert/2200
Event: Atlanta Action Tournament
Date: 1994.05.09
Opening: C19: French: 3 Nc3 Bb4: Main line: 7 Nf3 and 7 a4
Result: 1-0

Green move-links below show comments on the right.

White (Melvin, Bill) Won

Download the above game in PGN format here. (For a Netscape browser running on a PC, right-click the link and Save Link As. Other browsers have similar function.)

Return to Index

Send in your best game.

[Resources] [Info] [Book Store]
[Huntsville Chess Club]