Chess buddy Seth is visiting this evening. We have been looking at the position for about 10 minutes, each suggesting an assortment of candidate moves.

Right now we are looking seriously at

17 Bb2

mostly because it's so forcing. Black has little choice except to capture the proffered bishop, lest he himself go down a piece.

17...Qxb2 18 Rb1

On the queen. The only flight square for the queen is

18...Qc3 19 Rc1 Qb4 20 Rxc7

The black knight cannot take the bishop as white would mate on d7 with the queen. There is a threat here of 21 Bxe6, but black does have lots of moves to consider here.

We are finding this line unconvincing, but in the process of persuading ourselves of this, we see another possible key-move:

17 Bxe6 Qxa1

If, instead, 17...Nxe6 18 Qd5 looks really good. For instance 18...Qxa1 19 Qxe6+ Be7 20 Ba3 winning the queen due to the mate threat.

18 Qg4

Threatening 19 Be3 as well as 19 Bd7+

OK, we have spent enough time on this. Time to throw in the towel and check the score.

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I do not think there was an immediate clickety-click mantra.

I think Kasparov abandoned his R and went on to harass the exposed Black K. Later I think he used his Bs to put some pressure on Black's greedy Q.

From memory and a modicum of logic, this is perhaps how it went;

17. Qg4 Qxa1 18. Bxe6 Rd8(forced) 19. Bh6 (the point of R sac)Qc3 20. Bxg7 Qd3 21. Bxh8 Qg6 22. Bf6 (protects e6B)indirectly.

And thats about it. I think the game rambled on and I'll leave it better minds.

White sacs the rook with <17.Qg4> Qxa1 18.Bxe6 (and black can't play 18...Nxe6 due to 19.Qxe6+ and black's position quickly falls apart)...Rd8 (forced)

The final position is interesting to me: After the smoke has cleared, white trades down to parity then proceeds to dismantle black's position ending up 2-pawns ahead with a pawn-roller on the 5th rank.

However, I believe the greatest feat in the history of chess is Fischer's win streak vs World-class competition (all grandmasters) leading up to the World Championship. People seem to have lost sight of the fact that Fischer had already won 7-games in a row before he blanked Taimanov 6-0, Larsen 6-0 and won the first game against Petrosian, for a total of 20-games in a row. Think about that: Winning 20-games in a row against World-Class grandmasters (no speed games) is so off-the-charts that it defies rational analysis.

There other interesting records. For example, Tal holds the record for # games unbeaten: 47. He also holds the #2 record for games unbeaten: 44. Does that make him the greatest?

It was a fascinating experience. He would look at a patch of ground and see a rabbit track passing from left to right. A fox - probably a young vixen - running at full speed, turning to the left whilst looking right. And - here - a deep indentation where she sprang up to vault over the lowest bars of a fence.

We looked ... and saw nothing of the sort. Piles of leaves. The track of a mountain bike. Trees. Acorns.

But as we spent time with the tracker we started to see more. A darker line in the leaves where something had walked by. A broken twig. A flurry of feathers where something avian had met its maker. Not up to Tonto standards, to be sure, but ... more ... more than before, more than our city eyes would normally focus on.

And today's puzzle is a fine example of "what can you see?"

click for larger view

With patzer-eyes we see that the Ra1 is en prise. We think about moving it or playing the Bc1 to somewhere to protect the Ra1 along the back rank.

Then with kibitzer-eyes we focus on the Nd4 which is protected only by the black queen. Kick the black queen away and the knight will fall. And with the knight gone, we can dream about the pawn on e6.

But the player of the white pieces is Kasparov of the woodland realm and he has the gift of second sight. He spots the weakness of the black king and the awkward placing of the Bf8. Black will take two moves to castle to safety, which is time enough for an attack.

He also spots that black will take at least two moves to capture the Ra1. One to snaffle the booty and another to get the black queen out of the discovered attack if the Bc1 moves.

Hence the sequence in the game - 17. Qg4 Qxa1 18. Bxe6. The bishop cannot be taken as 18...Nxe6 19. Qxe6+ leads to mate or massive material advantage.

18...Rd8 Not the best. Fritz prefers 18...Qc3 but it takes cojones of steel (or silicon) to allow 19. Bd7+ Kf7.

19. Bh6 The threat is not so much Rxa1 as 19...gh 20. Qh5+ Ke7 21. Qf7#. Gruesome.

19...Qc3 20. Bxg7 And again 20...Bxg7 loses to the same Qh5+ mating trick.

And when the dust settles, white has won a pawn and has two connected passers. Exchange off all the pieces to an endgame win.

What impresses is the amount that Kasparov sees - or that his home preparation saw. The weakness of the black king trapped in the centre of the board. The time it would take for black to snaffle the a1 rook and emerge safely from the back rank. The mating threats which would give white time to stuff his bishops down black's throat. These are the tiny tracks that a GM or world champion spots, but the rest of us don't even notice.

Sometimes the more we learn, the more we realise how much we don't yet know.

Aragorn: Are you frightened?

Frodo: Yes.

17. Qg4 Qxa1 18. Bxe6 Rd8 19. Bh6 Qc3 20 Bxg7 Qd3 21. Bxh8 Ne2+ Kh1 22. Ng3+ hg 23. Qxf1+ Kh2 24. Qd3 and Black should not lose from here;

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Game of the Century: Bobby Fischer, age 13.

1.It's dealing with the first threat I noticed,which was winning the rook on a1.White is now protecting the rook twice now.

2.It develops a piece.

3.It develops with a threat,the knight on d4 is now hit twice.Also,if the knight tries to capture the bishop on b3 with 17...xb3 (see diagram 2) after 18.axb3 (see diagram 3) , white has given up the bishop pair,but as compensation,as a half open file for his rook on a1 to attack the weak a6 pawn.

Diagram 1

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Diagram 2

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Diagram 3

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Any questions? >

Missed it completely. Here's the puzzle position:

click for larger view

and here's a link on Crafty End Game Trainer:
http://www.chessvideos.tv/endgame-t... The EGT copies Anand's moves until move 21, when it varies with 21...Ne2+

click for larger view

which also loses (but differently).

It is difficult to believe that this combination can be sound, so here's a link to the position colours -reversed to try to defend it: http://www.chessvideos.tv/endgame-t...

Thanks. I was refuting 25. Bf5 with Qd1 but 26. f3 cuts off the Black Q and White with two Bs and the Q mates soon enough.

The move 17. Qg4!! as observed by <Jimfromprovidence> and others may not lead to a forced win with best play after the more cautious reply 17...Be7 18. Qxg7 0-0-0 19. Be3 . However, it still gives White practical winning chances and a strong initiative, which is all Kasparov really wanted in the first place.

The game may also reflect Kasparov's accurate assessment of his opponent, in that he probably figured Anand would not shrink from playing aggressively with 17...Qxa1, which may have put Kasparov into some of his opening preparation with 18. Bxe6.

Even after some extensive analysis with the computer, I'm still not sure at what point Kasparov had a forced win.

However, it does give one an appreciation of the extreme difficulty of the game at the highest levels, where the solving of clearly won positions is not so much of a problem.

The real difficult of the game is in the exploration of the unclear and the unknown, where a combination of opening preparation, understanding of the personality of the opponent and the kind of aggressive or conservative moves they're likely to make, and a grasp of all aspects of the game from openings to middle games and end games must be mastered.

Kasparov's style of aggressive play also made the game more difficult, as it's easier to sit back and play for draws than it is to play aggressively, take risks and push for the win.

http://www.sahovski.co.rs/other/ind...

http://www.tabladeflandes.com/zenon...