29. ... Kxg7
30. Qxh7+ Kf8

28. ... Kxg7
29. Qxh7+ etc.

The convoy can only go as fast as it's slowest ship.

You must write(post) for your weakest reader. There are a lot of lads here that cannot hold a position in their mind.

A diagram assists a great deal and makes it 100% clearer what you are showing and saying.

(a picture is worth a thousand words...or so they say.)

A well placed diagram can save a couple of dozens of words.

If you click on the sqare 'b8' you will get the fen from any part of the actual game.

Grabbing the position after move 10...

click for larger view

...took 12 seconds.

OK you have to tamper with it a wee bit if you want to show an unplayed variation. Some of you obviously put in a lot work showing cute line and variations. Adding a diagram will aid the post and in some cases trigger questions about another line because everyone can plainly see what you are showing.

"Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink or an elephant may bathe."

Or mosquitoes bathing and elephants drowning. And a few other combinations of insectoid grooming and elephant aquatic antics.

My guess is that a grandmaster would look at the comments and probably gravitate towards the ones with lots of variations. That's an elephant bathing. A beginner would probably like lots and lots of diagrams. Insects drinking, because if they drink enough one day they might pack their trunks and turn into Dumbo.

And there is a sliding scale between those two extremes - elephants and insects. I've always been partial to otters myself. Cute ears. If I ever get reincarnated as an animal I'd like to be an otter.

For my money, I am enormously grateful to everyone who posts here whether they include diagrams or not. I would not want anyone to be turned away because there was an expectation of diagrams. Not everyone wants to include them ... or has the capability to include them on something like a mobile phone or tablet.

People used to say the same thing to me, that I posted too many variations and should use diagrams. To be honestly embarrassed, it took a really long time before I finally figured out how to do a diagram ... (but I had help from a fellow poster).

Analysis by Stockfish 6 64:

17...Bc5 18.Kh1 Bxd4 19.Qf4 f5 20.Ne4 Bxg7 21.Rg3 Rf8

As so often, the point is not to find a striking move when it arises, but rather to base one's earlier play on that possibility.

Let me also link to another poisoned pawn brilliancy that starts with the bishop sac on f6 (and there it is accepted, but the LSB is on c4,) and soon turns into a sacrificial orgy: