Midsomer murders, probably the most frequent subject of our derision, has been running for almost three decades and there have been, at the time of writing, no fewer than 132 episodes. But these numbers pale, absolutely pale in comparison to those of German detective series Der Alte: 55 years and 467 episodes at the moment.1 The particular episode we’re talking about today was released in 1999 and it features chief inspector Leo Kress2 investigating a shooting: a man is playing chess with his wife when they get shot at through the window.
Frankly, there have been numerous times on this blog where I felt the urge to shoot the players as well, so perhaps I shouldn’t judge the guy too quickly. I really want to, though, so let’s have a look at the position to see whether it’d be justified.
The banker has white. We see him make a move from afar, so I can’t be fully sure, but I strongly suspect he has just played his bishop to c6:3
I’m quite confident in my reconstruction, because the director is much better at shooting than the assailant. And, hey, the position looks reasonable! The banker’s wife tells him he can take back his last move if he wants, but he declines. ‘Then you want to lose.’ she days, moving her queen to a3. Indeed, the Rb2+ threat is not so easy to parry. There is precisely one way to do it, and white finds it: Qx8+ Kxf8 Rd8+ and here black resigns. I think she could have allowed the beautiful checkmate after Ke7 Re8#.
Maybe she was disappointed that she went for Qa3 instead of the pretty counter combination Qxc2+ Qxc2 Bxc2+ Kxc2 Rc4+ followed by Rxc6 and an equal position. Or perhaps she was disappointed her husband didn’t get shot? You’ll have to watch the episode to find out!
Realism: 4/5 This is surprisingly good. The thought and care that went into this position, even though it is really not important to the plot, smacks of the fabled German Grundlichkeit.
Probable winner: White. Even without his opponent’s resignation, mate is unavoidable — and he clearly knows it.
1. [Der Alte, which means ‘The old one’ in German, started out referring to the main character, but by now I think it refers to the show itself.] ↩
2. [He went into policing, but the rest of his family went into salads.] ↩
3. [Six what I’ll never tell.] ↩