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I regularly surprise opponents - if unprepared - with an obscure side variant of the Sicilian which most often ends up in a pericritic Turton reversal, like e.g. so:

   [FEN ""] 
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Be2 a6 7.O-O b5 8.Bf3 Ra7 9.Be3 Rd7 10.a3 Bb7 11.Bg5 Be7 12.Re1 O-O 13.Qd3 Qc7 14.Qe3 Rc8 15.Rad1 Rdd8

Can you come up with an example of useful rook doubling? (Note: In my example, the reversal was just for teh lulz, since it played no role whatsoever. "Useful" could be a) if it's done by QR or QB, where the order matters, but I already know such examples, even from my own games, b) assume your rooks are on d4 and e5 and you want to double against d8. But if Re5-d5, say, your Rd4 stands in the way of Be3. Thus you double either Rd4-d6,Re5-d5 or even Re5-e3-d3, where the interference is only lifted when the first rook crashes into d8. Those are "true" Turtons.)

Link to game base appreciated.

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  • What does "pericritic" mean?
    – James Martin
    May 17, 2021 at 16:09
  • @JamesMartin: Oh, sorry, I always forget problemists have their own nomenclature. There is more than one way to double rooks. For example: just double them. Or: First move the rook on the line over the square where the second rook goes, then double. Can be back or forth, in both cases you switched their order. Or finally "peri": Observe the movement of Ra8, he goes around c8 on a parallel line (here 7). That's the "peri". "Critic" are are all: The "critical square" is the one your rooks attack. (Here none on ?8 exists, thus it's only a fake Turton :-)
    – Hauke Reddmann
    May 18, 2021 at 8:09

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I believe this qualifies as a useful Turton doubling from OTB play:

[Event "Eforie Nord Romgaz op"]
[Date "2007.08.09"]
[White "Berescu, Alin"]
[Black "Filip, Lucian"]
[WhiteElo "2511"]
[BlackElo "2400"]
[FEN "6k1/p2b1rpp/qn2Rp1b/2BP1P1Q/1P1R3P/8/P5P1/7K w - - 0 38"]

1. Re1 Qxa2 2. Rde4 Qa4 3. Re7
Rf8 4. R7e4 Rf7 5. Rg4 Qc2 6. Qxh6 Qxf5 7. Qf4 Qxf4 8. Rxf4 Nxd5 9. Rd4
Nc7 10. Red1 Be8 11. Rd8 1-0

Black was threatening 1... Qf1+, so there was no time for 1. Rde4. On the next move however, 2. Rde4 was obviously strong, threatening 3. Re8+ with checkmate to follow. After Black defended against that, 3. Re7 was good enough, although there were other good options at this point, as shown by the game continuation after the repetition.

Trying to save the bishop with 5... Bd2 would have run into another interesting way to double the rooks: 6. Qxf7! followed by Re1-e7xg7 and checkmate in two more moves.

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  • 1
    This is highly interesting from a problemists view: White turton-doubled not because he wanted himself but because Black forced his hand. (The end effect, obviously, is the same, but the logic school of problem chess loves to make these fine distinctions.)
    – Hauke Reddmann
    May 17, 2021 at 8:36

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