I have said this many times about players in the South-East. (Esp. NW FL and southern AL.)

It's actually the same principle as money. When you have a high supply of dollars (or rating points) and low demand, you get an inflationary spiral. (Then the FED tries to halt this by raising the TLF/PIR.)

Alternatively, you could have the situation which existed here in the United States during the Depression. We had an extremely strong dollar, backed by a vast silver reserve. However, the dollar became extremely scarce, (due to hundreds of factors); and the demand for the dollar (or rating points) was unusually high. This led to a DE-flationary cycle, where the price of goods and services kept coming down, until the system found a balance. (The U.S. Government also had to take a number of extraordinary steps to rectify the situation and address the imbalances.)

It also shows the value of knowing the basic mating positions!!

The first book that I ever saw these catalogued in was the excellent volume, "Practical Middlegame Techniques," by IM D. Kopec. (This post is in response to an e-mail question.)

He was one of the few chess players whom I ever saw get "rock star" treatment. (He was constantly besieged by people who wanted to shake his hand or get his autograph.)

I have said this many times about players in the South-East. (Esp. NW FL and southern AL.) >

Hmmm, the average player - even myself - only wishes that we could play so well.

Black is in a very bad way, and is faced with numerous threats, the most notable and immediate being 20 Bf4 Qf6 21 Bg5 Qg6 22 Qf3 and his Queen is trapped. In any case, he cannot ever hope to get his King to a place of safety - the Queen's side is booby trapped as we find out in the game, the King's side is hopeless because Black can't free himself from his responsibilities to g7 without ... Rg8 spoiling castling.

Against the threat of 20 Bf4, Black seems to have only two real defenses that do not drop material immediately, namely 20 ... Bd5 (other B moves just allow a deadly discovered check) and 20 ... Rg8 (in order to protect the g-pawn a second time at g5).

Now, if -

a1) 19 ... Bd5 20 Qe1! O-O-O 21 Bf5+ Be6 22 Rxd8+ Kxd8 23 Qd1+ Kc8 24 Bxe6+ fxe6 25 Rd3 Be7 26 Rd7 Bd8 27 Bxg7 wins.

a2) 19 ... Bd5 20 Qe1! Qe6 21 Bf5! Qxf5 22 Bxg7+ wins.

a3) 19 ... Bd5 20 Qe1! Be6 21 Bc4! (for if 21 ... Bxc4 22 Bxg7+) and Black is hopeless, as he simply does not have the mobility to defend on the open lines. E.g. 21 ... b5 22 Bxe6 fxe6 (if Qxe6 23 Bxg7, White wins a second Pawn directly and also forces an exchange down to an end-game) 23 Qd2! Qxd2 (forced on account of the threat of Qd7 mate) 24 Rxd2 Rg8 25 Rgd3 and the endgame is clearly quite hopeless.

Nasty checkmate there, I think Black should have seen that coming though.

There is a game:NN vs Bier in which the loser castles on the king side and is mated by two knights.