Thursday 25 June 2009

Winning does not mean Won

There are no points for style in chess. Whether you win brilliantly or ugly, it is still only worth 1 point on the scoreboard. And it is the same for losing. You can accumulate all the advantages in the world, but it only takes 1 move to throw them away.
If the current zonal has demonstrated anything it is the 'Winning does not mean won'. Especially at the top end of the tournament there were a number of fortunate escapes where it seemed that clear advantages weren't enough to overcome title wielding opponents. The top two seeds seem to benefit especially, with draw offers being made by opponents in winning positions, and opponents walking into the only trick left in the position.
But to show you how easy it is, here is a game I played earlier this week. I am black and have played quite a smooth positional game to reach a clearly winning ending. The challenge is to find out how I managed to lose from this position. I played 1. ... Kb5 and then ....

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

ouch Nxf4 followed by g5

Anonymous said...

I don't get it: Nxf4? gf g5 Bb4-f8 is just winning for black. Black is winning after Kb5!

Anonymous said...

I don't get it: Nxf4? gf g5 Bb4-f8 is just winning for black. Black is winning after Kb5!

After gf g5 is winning for white!! BF8 g6 bh6 g7 and the bishop can't get to the pawn so after nxf4 then gxf4 white is easily winning and the game is over!!!

Jezza said...

I think you missed the point of the question being asked. Black to move is clearly a win. The question is - show how black managed the throw the game away