I'll bet you a dollar that Gulko was expecting <20...Ndf8>; and his eyes bulged-out and he licked-his chops when Black plopped down <20...Ngf8>; and also the line that <jimfromprovidence> produced was probably very similar to what Gulko had in mind! :)

Glad you are playing regularly OTB. Thats really the point after all of your hard work.

Regarding Friday's puzzle, there was some interesting post-mortem analysis going on over <30.Qxg6+> & <30.Nxg6>. <CHESSTTCAMPS> posted the following comment over these moves:

CHESSTTCAMPS: So why did several generally reliable kibitzers, (<dzechiel>,<CHESSTTCAMPS>,<FSR>,<rhickma4>,<morfi- - shine>,<agb2002>), go for the blunder 30.Nxg6?? instead of 30.Qxg6+! ? Part of it may involve failure to notice the "long" move Qb2+ (away from the focus of kingside action), but I think that is secondary. Undoubtedly most of these kibitzers thought (as I did) that the wrong order of moves was actually the right order of moves because 30.Nxg6(??) Qxg6(??) 31.Qxg6+ forces the king to step into the pin at g6, whereas 30.Qxg6+! Qxg6 31.Nxg6 does not.

A formal identification of the opponent's major threats, as <JimfromProvidence> did today (and <agb2002>, among other, often does) would make this kind of blunder less likely.

And I replied:

<CHESSTTCAMPS> On your comment: <...but I think that is secondary. Undoubtedly most of these kibitzers thought (as I did) that the wrong order of moves was actually the right order of moves because 30.Nxg6(??) Qxg6(??) 31.Qxg6+ forces the king to step into the pin at g6, whereas 30.Qxg6+! Qxg6 31.Nxg6 does not> Good point! Unfortunately I cannot claim such justification; I simply focused on the fact the knight was attacked twice, and figured <30.Nxg6> solved that problem. In fact, I didn't even see <30...Qb2+> for some reason; Carelessness is the only explanation; No doubt if I did see the Queen check, I would've gone straight for <30.Qxg6+>

Good insight :)

Thus, I simply missed it.

I concluded after "analyzing my analysis" [ie: recalling what I was thinking when I decided on <30.Ng6>] that I became focused on the Knight on <h4>, which was attacked twice. <30.Nxg6> solved this and once I saw the followup <32.g4>, I figured that was the solution.

I will never complain to CG stating this puzzle is flawed or is only good for a Tuesday puzzle, etc. But whats generated so much discussion about this Sunday's puzzle is Muller clearly played poorly, for whatever reason.

For example, If I can forward an improvement for Black, then someone else (ie:<Ajile>) can improve even better on that, what does that say about Muller's play? So as long as you focused on the theme to move the knight and fork the Queen and Rook, then you have "solved" the puzzle, despite how poorly Muller played.

Thanks for the condolences: Maybe I'm off form today! After all, I'm not sick and in no rush. The most irritating part is I've worked numerous problems lately with this exact theme. After thinking about it, I became too concerned about the pawn on <c3> and figured I saw a brilliancy with <19.Qxc3>. Misses like this hurt, but only for a little while.

Once one realized that Black is the exchange down and White has a powerful exposed-check, then it becomes clear Black is playing to draw.

The funny thing is when I looked at it I thought "I've seen this game before" but I couldn't recall it exactly. I ended up choosing the move he didn't play! So much for perfect recall!

Please watch one of my newest video's. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny7k...) The give me your honest opinion, preferably posted on the page: Morphy vs Duke Karl / Count Isouard, 1858.

Please feel free to be 100% honest. Thanks!

I had a strange occurrence during the Saturday puzzle. I missed <Rxf2+> going with <Rd3>. The weird part is I saw white's response <Ba4> but somehow calculated (or mis-calculated) that white couldn't do this as the Bishop would be attacked twice. Of course it wasn't. I could only conclude I saw a 'mirage' or something like that.

Weird, huh? All I could do was laugh as I hadn't overlooked the base move.

Funny thing, when I read your solution <36.Re8+ Bxe8 37.Qe7+ Kg8 38.Qxe8+ Qxe8 39.Rxe8#> I admit this almost happened to me. For short puzzles, I just throw a roll-up board on the floor at my feet beside the computer. When I'm done I pick it up. The problem is when looking virtually straight down, a Bishop can appear as a pawn. Only when I got up and walked around to the other side did I fully realize the Bishop cuts off the Black king. Of course, I should have realized that all along.

You hit the nail right on the head: You probably need(ed) a break. I fell into that trap badly: I worked 12-15 problems a day for a month and was badly burned-out. Definitely, my sharpness improved but after 30-days, I didn't even want to look at a chessboard. And after I took a break, I found it hard to get going/training again, and so my accuracy fell-off dramatically. I was in a bad tailspin. I couldn't believe how quickly my accuracy fell off when I stopped doing problems.

The key is to balance the training so one doesn't overdo it. Yet, keep it up on a regular basis.

The thing about the Botvinnik game is the previous game featured a pawn-push so I was already in 'pawn-push' mode. 27...d4 seemed so 'Botvinnik-like' and it also just seemed the most natural move, which it was. But this puzzle had a twist: The actual move was not the solution! We get those every now and then.

Frankly, I never even bothered to look for another move. Its a great credit to those who took the time and found <27...Rb1>.

The thing about today's puzzle is <24.Nxd7> literally wins outright, from what I can tell. Its funny that Botvinnik would go in for <24.Nxf7> since its just not his style.

Its all good though. In this position, Black is so poorly positioned that <24.Rxf6> or <24.g6> besides the other two tries (24.Nxd7 or 24.Nxf7), all lead to very strong attacks for white.

Haven't been doing much lately, a few problems each day a little 5-minute here and there. Plus working through <sevenseaman>'s problems. He always serves up real zingers.

How's the progress at the Chess club? Any tournaments planned soon?

I posted an interesting 5-min game I lost. The point was to focus on time management. I got a little outside of my strict regime and was in time and positional trouble. At move <27> he had 2-min and I had 30-seconds. He then spent 45-seconds (I guess he figured he could afford it) on 28.Bh6?? overlooking my 28...Bg5+ winning his Queen. A mad time scramble ensued and my flag fell when he had 10.8 seconds left. A hard lesson to learn, but a fun game anyways!

BTW1: In todays POTD, I thought Black's best was 29.Qxg7 Ke8 30.Rh8+ Kd7 31.Qxf7+ Re7 32.Qd5+ Kc7 33.Rxc8+ Kxc8 34.Qc4+ forcing the exchange of Queens and at least Black is not mated on move <35>

BTW#2: I saw Polgar's book with the 5334 problems at Barnes and Noble. I am going to get this book soon. Thats a great looking book.

I am watching old Columbo re-runs, too. Mysteries are almost as good as chess puzzles :)

Columbo's problem-solving techniques include the acquisition of what they call "domain-specific knowledge" in machine learning. Falk certainly played his character to perfection, and apparently, he was so enamored of the role that he even bought the Pugeot he drove in the series.