The Santa Gambit

It was December and, in Santaland at the North Pole, Kris Kringle was worried. His sleigh was loaded with chess sets, Fritz CDs and copies of Kasparov's My Great Predecessors, but the Wicked Witch of the West had nobbled Rudolf and the reindeer—they could no longer fly.

Kris knew the reason. The Wicked Witch was a talented, cunning chess player and didn't want all the little boys and girls to be able to study the game and maybe become stronger than she. So she cast a cancelling spell over the whole of Christmas.

As Christmas Eve approached Kris challenged the witch to a game of chess to decide the fate of Christmas. The winner would have complete freedom to conduct Christmas in their own way, the loser could never again interfere.

The idea appealed to the Wicked Witch but, cunning chess player that she was, she knew Kris Kringle would have been at least an IM if he competed in mortal tournaments so she agreed to play the game only at odds. She demanded that he remove all his pieces from the board and play with nothing but his king and pawns.

Kris made a counter-offer. He would meet her conditions if she would allow him one move for each of the pieces removed.

Amazed that he accepted such an insurmountable handicap the Wicked Witch agreed and they settled down to play.

This was the opening position and Kris had seven moves before the Wicked Witch could begin to defend.

As the evil crone grinned across the board anticipating his hopeless task he played these moves:

Kris smiled at her and said, "It's called the Santa Gambit."

The Wicked Witch of the West screamed in anguish and vanished, never to challenge Santa Claus again.

Not a person to take defeat graciously, she cast another spell over the whole of the Internet so that if anybody wanted go to Santa's website they could do it only by using her initials. Try it yourself. He's at .claus.com – but watch out! If you don't use www first the Wicked Witch's spell will stop you getting through.

Of course, if you want to foil the Wicked Witch and visit a really cool Christmas site without using her initials you can go to Robert Ambalong's Christmas web page by clicking the wart on the end of her nose in the picture, below.

NO WITCHES!

Merry Christmas from Rooty Hill Chess Club and a happy new year to all.

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