Pretty Blunders - Jon Speelman's Agony Column #34

Jon Speelman's Agony Column #34

Black to play offered a draw. What do you think happened next?
The diagram is interactive. You can enter moves and
afterwards navigate with the arrows.

For the last column of the year, I'm going, as is traditional, to summarise a few of the main moments of drama (Agony and Ecstasy) which made up 2016. This will be on the wider stage but first a thought as to our main concern.

Chess is a highly emotional game in which two human beings do battle in real time (which is one reason, apart from their terrific core strength that it's so difficult – or rather almost impossible – to play against engines). The emotions can be almost overwhelming, positive and negative, and on the dark side it's worth considering the worst thing that can happen in a chess game.

This is normally a blunder that turns a won position at a single stroke into a loss. It can be on the board or perhaps even worse in one’s head when one resigns a won game and we had an instance of this a fortnight ago when an Indian amateur Bharat Singh Rawat resigned when he was totally winning. The most famous instance from chess literature is this one:

Of course “You can't win a game by resigning” and there are many other instances including the magnificent example at the top

This comes from “Not the British Chess Magazine” a one off that Murray Chandler produced in 1984. I'm just looking at a copy now and it starts with an article by myself “How weird is your chess?” with a game by the brilliantly eccentric Michael Basman. There is a centrefold of Jan Timman on crutches after hurting a foot, and a splendidly politically incorrect lampooning of “Vegetarian Chess” by myself and others including the famous “Anaemic Parsnip Attack”.

The Anaemic Parsnip Attack

“Not the BCM” also included a “Blunder of the Year”, judged by a panel including myself. And the diagram at the top was the winner.

After Black offered a draw, White, not unreasonably, asked for a move. Black had a think and then played 28...Qxb2+! which forces mate in three more moves: 29.Kxb2 Rb3+ 30.Ka1 Ra8+ 31.Ba6 Rxa6. So stunned was White that forgetting the draw offer, he resigned!

On the wider stage, the main events have to be the world championship and the Olympiad. I'm going to concentrate on the former with just three diagrams starting with the moment that Sergey Karjakin qualified to play Magnus Carlsen.

S. Karjakin - F. Caruana, Candidates Tournament 2016, Position after 36.Qd2.
The diagram is interactive. You can enter moves
and afterwards navigate with the arrows.

This was in the last round of the Moscow Candidates where Fabiano Caruana had to beat Karjakin as Black to qualify (though had they drawn and Viswanathan Anand beaten Peter Svidler as Black then Caruana would have qualified ahead of Karjakin).

Caruana made a pretty good fist of it but got into time trouble and the decisive action occurred in the diagram where after

36...Re4? Karjakin kept his nerve and played the devastating sacrifice 37.Rxd5! exd5 38.Qxd5 This is horrible for Black and in time trouble more or less indefensible and after Qc7 39.Qf5 Rf7 40.Bxf7 Qe5 41.Rd7+ Kf8 42.Rd8+ Caruana resigned and Karjakin had qualified.

Just two moments from the world championship.

Of course, Carlsen actually won the match in the rapid play-off but the most critical moment had come several days earlier in the regular game he won:

With these three examples of Agony and Ecstacy at the highest level, we close 2016. Next week it'll be back to normal business. Please do keep sending in your games. You'd be surprised at how bashful the readership has been and will have excellent chances of being published here.

A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

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