I suspect the fact that it was a team championship had something to do with it. You wouldn't want to be the first to cash in with an early loss.

Besides, I thought that black had real chances to draw this. Once the rooks were off the board all he needed to do was exchange his bishop for the white rook pawn and it's a draw. And that rook pawn had to cross a couple of black squares to get to a8.

Although it wasn't hard and I solved it quickly, you are correct in saying that the mate doesn't immediately spring to mind as it isn't a common pattern (like Q+N double check and smothered mate with N, for example).

Another lovely mate that has a similar position to yours is one by Topalov (if I recall correctly): the winning side has pawns on one side of the board and with a B and N they manage to create a most beautiful and unique mating net.

http://www.olimpbase.org/2011e/2011...

This game was from round 3, and Miezis' win tied the match. So it's quite possible that match considerations led Navara to play on, not to mention that fact that a 2700-player can't enjoy losing in under 25 moves.

Hey, maybe that could be a new chess book .... "How to lose at chess"??? The techniques and strategies for losing with as much dignity as possible.

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Fritz doesn't understand it either. He reckons that it increases white's advantage from just under a pawn (+0.91) to over two pawns (+2.46).

Black may have panicked slightly as there is no obvious way to stop white from playing Rxd3 to exchange rook for two knights. The black knight on d3 is really going to struggle retreating anywhere safe.

So he <might> have gambled that Rxe3 would give him something to play against - the newly weakened isolated e3 pawn. And later on we see black trying to harass this pawn with Re8 and Ba6. I don't think it is particularly convincing, but at least it is an aggressive plan for black.

Keeping with this, it is safe to say that 18...Nbd3? was the mistake that essentially put Black in the hole for the rest of the game.

It's possible that Navara was thinking he had ...Nf4 at some point but missed White's lovely 19. Qc2!

As an improvement, without the aid of my trusted Stockfish, I recommend 18...Nc6 as good for Black. The idea being that 19. b4 and 19. Nb5 are both met by the strong 19...Ne4! when Black's queenside pawns are safe from capture and Black threatens to untangle with ...Qf6 (or possibly even ...Qe7) at some point with a fair game.

Also, if 19. Qc2 Qc8 (not 19...Qe7/19...Qf6 20. Nd5!) 20. Nb4 Ne5 when Black is defending, but defending well.

This is the position with white to play move 35.

click for larger view

I guess on <CG> site everybody would play 35.Nxf7.

Easy, but only because I composed a puzzle with a similar theme. Mate in 4.

White: Kb6, Bc7, Nd7, Ne7
Black: Ka8, Rc8

Being a tad pedantic but the position can be slightly juggled for a similar solution.

click for larger view

w t p & w.

These puzzles are all about the human mode.

<BOSTER> A very interesting and engaging discussion! I like such ideas on a chess page.

<CG.COM> I completely endorse the view you have taken in deciding to present this composition-like puzzle on the POTD forum. Its exactly the puzzle I saw on a Tactics Computer.

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