This one is from a blitz game, g/5, at Playchess.com. You're looking from Black's point of view so lower left corner is actually the H8 square. I despise a pesky, forky, and treacherous knight, much more two of them. There comes a time in a man's life when safety in simplicity is preferred over glory!

Hey, a won game in hand is better than two on the pairing board. So, when my opponent played 34. Nb6-d7, I went 34...Rf2+ 35. Nf2 Rf2+ 36. Kg3 Rd2 and I was able to promote the C pawn several moves later. Don't fool around with a good thing!

Here's a great video of Karpov and Kasparov in their world championship match in 1987 in Seville. You can see Karpov fidget under pressure although he had the advantage. We all know how that feels, don't we? So you can follow the moves, I am reproducing the position on the board at the point where Karpov played 53. Bh6, attacking Kasparov's queen on f8.


As you can see, Karpov was a rook up for Kasparov's isolated passed pawn and a 2-1 pawn majority on the kingside. Fritz gives white a +-3.83 advantage over black. In the comments section of the video, there was mention about Kasparov losing his queen, and this is actually not the case. The moves went 53. Bh6 Rd3 54. Bf8 Rh3+ 55. Kg2 Rg3+ 56. Kh2 Rg1 57. Bc5 d3. 1-0 . It would be wrong for Karpov to take the rook ( 58. Kg1) because the D pawn will promote. The move here is 58. Bb4.

There's no happiness no matter what. Last Monday night, the club, Dumont Chess Mates, had a scheduled 4-round G/10 tournament wherein I scored four wins and two losses with two games per round/opponent. Yeah, it should have been eight games but we ran out of time and several players expressed their willingness to cut it down to three rounds. We had to be out of the Teaneck Jewish Center by 11 pm. The club will be meeting there throughout this Summer. Six games of G/10 was good enough for me actually. I was beginning to tire and an onsetting headache made me want to not think anymore. Ah, it would be nice to have the stamina and retentive powers of a young person but at fifty-two years I am already qualified to play in seniors only tournaments. Anyway, when my son asked about my results, he said that winning four out of six was good. Good? I don't think and feel so. Like most chessplayers, I relive the blunders in my head and curse the moments when I made mistakes. It's always, " I could have done better. " Chess is hard on and off the board, and the emotional toll is definitely there.

I was a bit surprised when my opponent resigned at this point, having played my queen from f3 to b3. A rook, knight and bishop against my queen is advantageous to my opponent, but there is that pawn on b7. Don't get me wrong. I thought I had a winning chances here, but there was still a lot of work to be done. His problem, of course, is the move b7-b8 (Q) coupled with a closed backrank. Exchanging bishops would deny black the bishop pair plus his white-squared bishop could be very problematic for me. Let's take a look : 27... Be2 28. b8 (Q) Bc4 29. Qe8+ Ne8 30. Qe3 double attack. Another way is, 27... Re2 28. b8(q)+ Re8 29. Qe8+ Ne8 30. Qb5 Kf8 31. Qb4+ and white is looking better. And if 27... Rb8, then 28. Bg4 Ng4 29. Qd5 h5 30. Qc5 Be5 31. Qa7 Bc7 32. a4 and white has a very good game.

Looking over this game between Tal & Botvinnik, 1960, Moscow, Game 1, on Fritz9, I wondered if this could be a rare gross blunder by Botvinnik. I have the book on the match but I haven't consulted the analysis found there. The Fritz engine did not suggest Botvinnik's next move, preferring 29...Kb7 or 29...Kb8, evaluating the position as +- 2.58 for white. I was quite surprised to see Botvinnik allow Tal to skewer him after he played 29...dc4 30. Bc4 Qg7 31. Bg8 Qg8 32. h5 1-0