Best for White is probably <27.Bf4> when after <27...Bxe5 28.Bxe5> Black still has some work to do

*****
PM: I never considered 26.Qg3 as a possible defense, but it doesn't seem to matter

Black can get the pawn shortage back by exploiting the pin on the d4 pawn:

25............Rxe5
<if 26.dxe5 Bxe3 and White Queen is lost>

<if 26.Qxe5 Bb8 pinning White Queen and ultimately winning it>

It appears that there are not many safe sqares for the White Queen to run to:

26.Qf4 Bb8
27.dxe5 Bxe5
and again winning the pinned Queen

26.Qf3 Rf8
27.Qd1 Re2
28.Rxc4 to remove supporter of e2
28.......Rff2
29.Kg1 Rxg2+
30.Kf1 Ref2#

26.Qc3 Bb8
<if 27.dxe5 Bxe5+ and winning Queen>

<25....?>

Black's pins and skewer threats look strong. I have to admit it took me a while to find the a7-bishop to be the key of the puzzle. All threats combined, Black wins at least a pawn with <25....Rxe5>. Of course 26.dxe5 Bxe3 and white has created more problems unvoluntary. White can move the queen away after which Black has a clear initiative over the b8-h2 diagonal and the bishop pair to boot, a bit more interesting to analyse is the prosaic <26.Qxe5>.

I find some players to disregard this uneven exchange as for Black way too easily. <26....Bb8> and after either <27.Qxb8/Bf4 > I find the position in White's favor. It is not and Black should win eventually, but should be very wary of the Rook and Knight combos and only a minor slip by Black can make his pilgramige to victory worse.

Then there was the story about the East German pole vault champion who is now the West German pole vault champion ... but that will only make sense if you are old enough to remember a time when we had an East and a West Germany.

The French word for a walkie-talkie is a talkie-walkie. The Best Boy in the World and I find this pant-wettingly funny, but you couldn't translate it into German or Japanese.

A film about flatulence in a lift is funny (at least it is to a 12 year old boy and his Dad). The real thing ... less so.

And so to today's POTD. There are two jokes here but the first only works ye olde descriptif notayshunne. Here goes...

And yea verily didst white essay to play his kynge from his knyghtes first house to the second house of his rook. (K from N1 to R2).

And blacke, being a witty and a mischievious rapscallion, didst retort with a contrary-wyse bishoppe move of B from the rook's second to the knighte's first! (B from R2 to N1).

Somehow it just doesn't work so well as Kh2 followed by Bb8.

The second joke does survive the ages better. The black rook somehow manages to sacrifice himself twice on e5. Which is a bit like a kamikaze ace.

My dog's got no nose. How does he smell? Awful.

<KARLSBAD 1907>, Yorklyn, 2007. An English translation of this original famous tournament book in German by George Marco and Carl Schlechter. This edition has the advantage of enhancements such as the addition of 15 photos of many of the players along with many corrections and additional analysis using the new, very strong program, Rybka. The tournament was one of the strongest of the last century with only Lasker, Tarrasch and Burn, missing from the roster of the world's best players of that day. The young player Rubinstein won in fine style followed by Maroczy just one-half point behind and by Leonhardt, Nimzovich/Schlechter, Vidmar, Duras/Teichmann, Salwe, Wolf, Dus-Chotimirski/Marshall, Spielmann, Tartakower... h, mint, 475p. $55.

c) h, vg, orig. ed, with some colored underlining in a few places, $100.