Chess: Black Resigned • White Is Audacious (St George Defence)

I Played White

This is the "St George Defence" position:

It started from my audacious composure. My opponent was eyeing my h1 rook from the beginning. You can see later on the game the fianchetto setup. And therefore,

Pray, do help yourself.

Let's watch. Thousand apologies for being a menace.

You can use your left and right arrows on your keyboard or use the mouse scroll to see the moves back and forth on the chessboard. But first, click the board.

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Saint George

The story goes as such.

Tony Miles, a Birmingham lad, rocked up to the 1980 European Team Championship and had the sheer audacity to play the most unorthodox, dubious-looking opening against the reigning World Champion Anatoly Karpov. The St George Defence — named after the patron saint of England, famous for slaying a dragon. The implication being that Black is St George, and White's imposing centre is the dragon.

Miles himself named it after the legend of St George and the Dragon — his victory over Karpov being the slaying. Karpov being the dragon. Oh yes, I breathe fire constantly. Indubitably. 🔥 Look, fried ham. Hand. 🤚🏿 By thunder, I'm slain. Good for me. You, too.

The St George Defence goes by several names:

• The Baker's Defence

  Wilhelm Steinitz vs John Baker — London, 4 December 1868. Blindfold simultaneous (simul) match. Baker played the defence, obviously.

  Baker was an English amateur. Meaning an amateur chess player of English nationality. Not, say, was still learning to be English. Just wandering about, vaguely English, not entirely committed to it, giving it a go. Terribly sorry, still practising. But I can play chess! ⬅️ Not like that.

  Steinitz was playing multiple opponents at once, all blindfolded — including himself of course, not just the opponents. Imagine how hilarious that would be if Steinitz didn't wear a blindfold prancing around?

  ⬆️ In a blindfold simul the champion sits in one spot, and the moves are called out to him by an assistant. Whilst in a regular simul, the champion strolls grandly from board to board, hands clasped behind his back, dispensing moves like a feudal lord. Now, if we mash those two images together... well... the mental image of the blindfolded World Champion shuffling cautiously between tables, arms outstretched, knocking over teacups. AND still has a clear memory of the last position ...right, where was I, yes, board four, knight to f6. Someone ought to move those teacups. Hm.

  Anyway, Baker was one of the many "lesser" opponents Steinitz was casually dismissing whilst blindfolded — except Baker had other ideas entirely. Baker won by Steinitz's resignation. This is the game on chessgames.com.

  For our information, simultaneous blindfold exhibitions were officially banned in the USSR in 1930 as they were deemed a significant health hazard. The "health hazard" there:

  Harry Nelson Pillsbury died in 1906 at just 33.

  Emanuel Lasker solemnly declared Pillsbury had "died from an illness contracted through overexertion of the memory cells."

  But! It was actually syphilis.

  So the Soviets were essentially panicking based on a misdiagnosis.

  The 1930 ban in the USSR on blindfold exhibitions was lifted after World War II, allowing such events to resume.

• The Birmingham Defence

  Tony Miles in 1980, after his hometown. Anatoly Karpov vs Tony Miles (20 January 1980, Skara, Sweden) ⬅️ 1980 European Team Championship above. This is the game on chessgames.com. Which then Miles christened it as "St George Defence". Because it must have, at least, split milliseconds interval. Not simultaneously at one exact timestamp. Birmingham Defence first, then St George Defence, or the other way around. Who knew.

• The Basman Counterattack

  Michael Basman published it in his book, Play the St George, 1983.

Because apparently one eccentric nickname wasn't enough.

Miles' hometown got immortalised in chess history purely because he had the nerve to pull it off against Karpov.

🐉⚔️ St George's dragon-slaying bit stems from the Legenda Aurea (Golden Legend) — a wildly popular hagiography compilation written by Jacob de Voragine in the mid‑13th century. He was adopted officially as England's patron saint by the 14th century, under Edward III, who made him the symbol of the Order of the Garter. He was a Roman soldier, high-ranking officer under Emperor Diocletian (3rd century AD). He refused to persecute Christians in the Eastern provinces of the Roman Empire — most likely in Syria, Palestine, or Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey).

Hagiography = a collection of saints' lives — written to inspire devotion rather than historical accuracy.

And I... slew the defence. 🤦