Speelman's Agony #75

by Jonathan Speelman
5/6/2018 – Agony and ecstasy from IM John Cox. John takes a look at one of his own games, plus an agonising fragment from Cox's past. Just a reminder — Jon can always use more material from readers which can be sent either to the Dropbox mentioned below or directly to him at jonathan@speelman.demon.co.uk. If your games are selected for the Agony column, not only will you get free detailed commentary of your games by one of chess’s great authors and instructors, and former world no. 4 player, but you also win a free three-month ChessBase Premium Account!
Fritz 16 is looking forward to playing with you, and you're certain to have a great deal of fun with him too. Tense games and even well-fought victories await you with "Easy play" and "Assisted analysis" modes.

Jousting with John

I'm writing in the small hours of Friday morning after losing a London League game yesterday evening to John Cox, a lawyer in his mid-fifties rated in the 2300s who also plays a mean game of bridge.

My team Wood Green had already won the league for the nth time in a row before last night's match against Cavendish and despite this loss, we beat them by a large margin. John and I had a very pleasant post-mortem in the pub afterwards and I'm very far from dolorous (so perhaps there's rather an absence of agony or ecstasy surrounding the game). But it was a very  interesting battle and after looking at it he also very kindly showed me his most agonising ever loss with which we start:

 

Click or tap other games in the game list below the board to switch

Rook endings are amongst the most frequently encountered endgames there are, and so your training effort will be quickly repaid in the form of half and full points. Knowing even a few rules of thumb and key methods makes life a great deal easier and provides a guiding light even in complex positions. This DVD focuses on the important themes which are to be found in common rook endings.

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Jonathan Speelman, born in 1956, studied mathematics but became a professional chess player in 1977. He was a member of the English Olympic team from 1980–2006 and three times British Champion. He played twice in Candidates Tournaments, reaching the semi-final in 1989. He twice seconded a World Championship challenger: Nigel Short and then Viswanathan Anand against Garry Kasparov in London 1993 and New York 1995.

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