Sep-04-18 Blackburne vs Showalter, 1889 
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| green ink: Once, a team match I was in was decided narrowly when an opposing player threw away an easy win. Afterwards his exasperated team mates did a post mortem and pointed out all the winning moves he had failed to play: "And at this point, you had a mate-in-two!" "Yes, I saw that", said |
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Apr-12-17 J F Campbell vs A Ehrlich, 1990
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| green ink: A similar correspondence chess failure from the 80's: 1. d4 f5 [2. ANY e6] 2. Bg5 e6 3. Bxd8 1-0 |
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Jan-05-16 Topalov vs Anand, 1999
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| green ink: Guys (al wazir, kmet vlado), 44. h7 a3 45. Kh6 Ne5 and it's all over. Or 45. Kg6 Nd8, likewise. |
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Jun-12-14 M Diskerud vs Carlsen, 2013
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| green ink: Between these extremes we find GM Simen Agdestein, who has played both soccer and chess on an international level. |
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Jan-28-14 McShane vs A Istratescu, 2013
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| green ink: 27... Bxh3 loses to 28. Rxg7. But 28. h4 was probably a mistake - black could have tried 28... Qf6 (29. Qxf6 gxf6 30. Rxd7 Rxh4 looks bad). Instead 28. Re3 and I can't see any defense against Rg3 followed by Rxg7. |
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Dec-21-13 Dus Chotimirsky vs Salwe, 1903
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| green ink: When you see this position on chessgames.com, you immediately begin looking at 23. - Qxg5. At least I did, but I could not see any decisive outcome. In a real game I would probably have played 23. - Qd5 which seems to put black firmly on top. |
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Dec-18-13 P Hammargren vs E J Diemer, 1974
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| green ink: According to witnesses, Diemer probably meant to play 1. - f5. But instead of gripping the f-pawn, he just tapped it somewhat nonchalantly with one of his fingers. It slid along - but not as far as intended, stopping while mostly on the f6 square. After that, Diemer had to do what |
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Jun-05-13 Opocensky vs K Skalicka, 1936
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| green ink: Otoh, 27...g5! and there is no mate. White still has a lot of pressure, but I don't think there is a win anytime soon. |
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Oct-28-12 Unzicker vs Uhlmann, 1962
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| green ink: Incredibly, after 27.Qf5+ Qxf5 28.Nxf5 black could have played for a win with Nxe1 29.Ne7+ Kb8 30.Ng8 Nf3+ 31.Kf1 e4, and white is still in trouble: 32. h8Q (dxe4 Bb5+ 33. Kg2 Nh4+ and Ng6) exd3. Fire up the analysis engines to see if the black steamroller can be stopped! I'd have |
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Apr-23-12 A Spiller vs J Acers, 1968
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| green ink: Hmm. Lots of strange moves. White could have turned the tables with 24. Txb4. After 24. - Qa2+ 25. Kd1 it's black who is in trouble. |
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