I’ll recap. This position was reached with White (Fat Lady) to play.
White missed.
Hey Green Gob, mention if Fat Lugs had seen a few blogs back when you
were covering a Queen v 3 bits he would have seen a similar mating pattern
mischas - rickr RHP 2005.
Shut your beak Duck.
Sorry about that Fat Lady.
So how come FL missed this? It’s not too difficult a shot to see OTB.
And there is the rub. It was an OTB game.
The bare score of an Over The Board game never ever tells the full story.
From what I gather from the threads a lot of you have never played OTB Chess.
It’s a different game from playing on the net in the comfort of your own bedroom.
This was a league match. These are always evening affairs.
So first a days work has to be suffered, then a quick tea and rush off to the venue.
If I was involved in an important league match, and all were, then I’d often sac a
days holiday to skip the work bit.
The down side of a league a match is that it a team affair.
If you turn up a man down then that’s pressure, a team mate losses quickly and
there is more pressure. Moves and decisions you don’t want to make are thrust
upon you.
You try to sit their blinkered and forget all that is going around you.
Suddenly you get a whisper:
“You need to draw to win the match.”
And you are sitting there with all your bits ready to launch a do or die attack.
Your thumb goes right up your ass and your brain slips into neutral.
You are not caught in two minds what to do, you are trapped in a mindless daze.
League matches are awful to play in…..I loved every minute of it.
I PM’d Fat Lady for ALL the details. The had to be an extenuating
circumstance why a good player missed such move.
If this was a blitz game, and I’ve played FL at blitz, he’s not too bad.
(quite good infact he’s won 77.6% of the games but whose counting?)
He would have seen this two mover. In Blitz you don’t have time to
start looking for other wins. The mind is tuned to cheapo’s and tricks.
The is no pressure, you win or lose, forget it and onto another game.
So what is the bare score not telling us?
The game was played on Fat Lady’s birthday and he arrived 10 minutes late
for the game.
His daughter had hidden his presents around the house in some kind of
mischievous treasure hunt that would have driven me potty.
His team went a quick 1-0 down.
Any player barring the most self disciplined would now have their head on back
to front and firmly in ‘don’t botch it’ mode.
I reckon Fat Lady missed the mating pattern because he was not looking for it.
He’s a good player and did what do good players do? They trade off into easily
won end games.
Here is how it finished.
I’ve seen hundreds of examples similar of this.
A good player has built up such an overwhelming position. they can win
with a sac-sac attack or cruise into an ending. They usually take the ending.
Fat Lady spotted that weak d6 pawn and correctly judged it was a win.
A simple win.
Me? I never even saw the d6 pawn till FL went after it. If I’m in a won
ending it’s usually an accident.
It’s just something to be aware of. If Fat Lady had been a weaker player
he would have spotted the mate. He would not have been looking for anything else
and would not have the skill to judge the coming ending.
Chess is funny like that.
The stronger you are the more you see…….and the more you miss.
Here are some similar shots not missed by players on here
and by Green Gob’s reckoning it’s because they are crap chess players.
jamjamjoe - PantherUK RHP 2010
MadH - Djinc RHP 2009
8D - Oldmanwithatwix RHP 2008
No Duck.
Look at these positions, is there another way to win to distract a player.
Can you see a clear cut 100% way to go into a won ending?
I don’t do endings
Neither do I…I do traps and anyway these were not OTB games…Lets move on.
I’m not the only one doing traps. Proper Knob set me up for one in our recent game.
Properknob - GP RHP 2012
I bought a old hat at a car boot sale from some old lady for £5.00
I know what you are thinking? Rather steep that for an old hat. £5.00
But this is not just any old hat. It’s a Time Travelers Hat.
I followed the instructions on the label and it works.
If you don’t believe me then he is a picture of not me at my board after
I put the hat and went back 30 seconds to take the picture.
So I put on the hat and went back to Paris in the year 1858 the day after Morphy
had played his famous opera game v The Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard.
I challenged them to a game of Chess, They can have White if the Duke plays
the even numbered moves and the Count the odd numbered moves.
They agreed.
The Allies v Greenpawn., Paris 1858
The thread accompanying this blog is Thread 149951
(the Allies v gp game was actually Rick - Kronsbein, Frankfurt 1938)
scores it would break up the time continuim and we would end
in chaos with chess books showing different results.
Hi Paul
Ssshhhhh!