<<keypusher>: we were discussing <becoming> champion while overweight, not losing the crown while overweight.>

To me, it seems they may thinking, "Man, that Steinitz is really getting kind of pudgy. Note to self: take long walks in the country. A Pilates class wouldn't hurt either."

<If you can avoid it, never play cards, smoke or drink alcohol of any kind. These are bad habits which greatly shorten life and weaken men physically as well as intellectually and morally.>

Botvinnik had Ragozin blow smoke in his face in his preparations for the 1941 match-tournament.

<“A few words about my own play. I prepared for the tournament long and successfully...My old friend, master (now grandmaster) Ragozin, was of great help to me in my preparations. I played training games with him under ‘corresponding’ conditions. As I had grown unaccustomed to tobacco smoke and had suffered a little from it in other tournaments, during our games Ragozin often threw up real ‘smoke screens’. And so when my opponents in the tournament sent streams of tobacco smoke in my direction, (accidentally, of course!), it had no effect on me.”>

And Schlechter seems to be looking at Tarrasch and thinking, "What the heck is that in his ear? That's is gross! Hmmm, should I tell him?">

Fischer was a noted tea-totaller, so I doubt he smoked tobacco or anything else. Bent Larsen recalled that when Fischer was young, they were in a tourny together where the organizers gave the gift of two bottles of liquor to all the players.

Fischer poured one bottle down the sink but couldn't get the other bottle open. "To Bobby, all liquor was quite harmful, and he never touched the stuff."

[-2.47] d=32 42...gxf4 43.Nf3 h6 44.h4 Rxa6 45.Rxa6 Kxa6 46.h5 Bb4 47.Ke2 Kb5 48.Kd3 Bf8 49.Kc2 Kc5 50.Kd3 Kd6 51.Nh4 Ke6 52.Ke2 Kd7 53.Kd3>

After 46.h5 it looks like White establishes a blockade on the light squares:

click for larger view

And I don't see how Black can break through (e.g., 49...Kc4 50.Nd2+ followed by 51.Kd3); the moves in the Rybka line from this point on appear pretty random, so the -2.47 eval is probably meaningless.

<Eyal> My problem with all of those drawing lines (and of course, I'm no Rybka or Kasparov) is that black is allowing the trade of rooks in both of them

It seems clear that black's best winning chances in this position, are with the rooks on the board

<Eyal> I just looked at this line in a little more depth

It seems to me that on the 49th move black would do better, instead of taking the a6 pawn and trading rooks, by immediately playing 49. ....d3+ 50. Kf1 d2

51...Ra8 52.Ra1>

This is the line that made me think black is winning...(Not 51...Rxe7)

After 52. Ra1, my idea is to play 52...Kc6 and 53..Kd7, stopping the 'e' pawn

Then black simply threatens ...Rxa6 (or ...Rxa7, if the pawn is pushed to a7) and white can't recapture because one of the pawns queens

Yeah, I see the idea - but this is actually losing for Black, after 53.a7 Kd7 54.Rb1!

click for larger view

And the skewer on d8 after 53...Kd6 54. e8(Q) Rxe8 55. a8(Q) Rxa8 56. Rxa8