L'espirit de l'escalier

The title of this post is the French term for what is known as 'staircase wit'. 'Staircase wit' is thinking of the perfect retort far too late for it to be of any use. Occasionally this kind of thing occurs in chess, although not via verbal exchanges. It might be described as the 'staircase sacrifice' where you realise that you could have played the winning move three moves ago, but by now the opportunity has passed.
I had this experience this evening in rapid game at the Belconnen Chess Club. I played a hack line against the French and was rewarded with Ng6+, which wins and exchange due to mating threats down the h file (NB This is the second time I have pulled off this trick in the last 2 months!). But having won the exchange I needed to keep working. I though that h6-Qg5, aiming for Qf6 was strong, but after my opponent played his knight back to g8 I decided to head in another direction. It was only after a played Bb4+ that I realised that Qxg6 had been on for a number of moves! Of course it would still work if my opponent played Ke8, but a few seconds after I realised what I had missed, Kf7 was played instead.
Fortunately I still had a material edge, and was well up on the clock, but my eventual win was far less convincing than it could have been.


Press,Shaun - Kethro,Michael [C18]
Belconnen CC, 08.07.2014

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Qc7 7. Qg4 f5 8. Qg3 Ne7 9. Bd2 cxd4 10. cxd4 O-O 11. h4 Nbc6 12. c3 Bd7 13. h5 Na5 14. Rb1 Ba4 15. Nh3 Kh8 16. Nf4 Qd7 17. Ng6+ Kg8 18. Nxf8 Kxf8 19. h6 g6 20. Qg5 Ng8 21. g4 Rc8 22. gxf5 exf5 23. c4 Nxc4 24. Bb4+ Kf7 25. Bxc4 Rxc4 26. Qe3 Qe6 27. Rb2 b5 28. Re2 Rc6 29. Bc5 a6 30. Qg5 Ne7 31. Rh3 Rc8 32. Rhe3 Rc6 33. Kf1 Rc8 34. Kg2 Nc6 35. Qf6+ Qxf6 36. exf6 Kxf6 37. Be7+ Kf7 38. Bg5 Na5 39. Re6 Nc6 40. Rf6+ Kg8 41. Ree6 Nxd4 42. Re7 Rf8 43. Rg7+ 1-0