In 1915, Lord Dunsany published the little-known “The True History of the Tortoise and the Hare.” According to the tale, the origin of the famous race was a chess game in which the Hare lost to the Tortoise in a pawn race. The Hare sought revenge in a footrace he was certain to win the next day. This historical footnote was obscured by the Great Fire, which destroyed most of the Forest’s records.
Inside a Sequoia tree that survived the fire, Dunsany discovered a record of the game. It was the Hare’s account, complete with his paw print for verification. According to the Hare, he played the black pieces in this week’s position; the Tortoise played white.
Here, the Hare thought that despite being a pawn down, he would queen a pawn first and force a draw with endless queen checks. That “Tricky Torty” (the Hare’s term) seized on the flaw in his reasoning and made the winning move. What was Tricky Torty’s move and plan?
The Hare was right that a straight-up pawn race draws. If White immediately launches the f3 pawn down the board, Black’s king steps onto the c-file instead of the a-file, freeing the b5 pawn. Because Black’s b5 pawn is poised to promote with check, White must invest a move in taking the king off the b1–e4 diagonal. The result is that Black’s new queen begins checking White’s king first. The game is drawn by perpetual check, as Black can avoid a queen trade.
Seeing this, Torty moved the king to d4. The Hare moved the king to the most natural square, a3. From there, the pawns raced down the board like mirror images. When White’s pawn queened, it placed Black’s king in check (see next diagram).
Now, with a quick series of checks along the a- and b-files, Tricky forced a queen trade. The Hare resigned upon realizing White’s kingside pawns on the other side of the board were like two bears finding a honey-rich beehive.
The Hare’s annotations show that Black still loses if the king moves to a4 instead of a3 in response to White’s king move to d4. The pawns begin running, but when Black’s pawn reaches b3, White invests a move in king to c3. This forces Black to play king to a3 to escort the pawn to b2 and b1. Thus, White promotes again with check, allowing a queen trade and conversion of the kingside pawn majority (see next diagram).
The lesson this week: running faster doesn’t always win the race.
