It starts off with a poem by Betty and Veronica. from their own comic.
(don’t groan I hate chess poems as much as everyone else but this is OK)
Then J. Crump - A. Holowczak, Birmingham Chess League, 2009
Black to play. You are losing so think like a swindler.
This weeks puzzle is;
White to play and win. I do not know (yet) the name of the composer.
The ‘Theme of the Week’ is ‘Knight Sac, Rook Sac and Queen Mates’ and
actually starts with the first puzzle I add to it using a cluster of RHP games.
We end with a picture of a beer bottle (I get 20p back on the empties.)
Blog Post 595
Hi congruent,
You would have resigned! Maybe but possibly not because it is a well know fact
that chess players facing a loss really dig in and think harder looking for and
ready to clutch at any passing straw. Add in the player winning often relaxes
and then you have all the ingredients for a swindle.
It is also a fact (well maybe not a fact but very common) for very good players
to lose games quicker than average players. If White had played practically
anything else in that game other than cxd7 Black admitted they would have resigned.
A good players and could see any 'sensible' move would lose the ending
without a shred of counter play.
Because they are good enough to see it, they know delaying will only make it worse
so they lash out in an effort to complicate things. Sometimes it works, sometimes
not, and if not then a quick loss is one cards.
Average players are happy plodding along perhaps not realising they are losing
and resign in the ending without their opponent breaking sweat. Then they think
the fault is in their endgame play so off they go to study that when in fact
the fault lay in their inability to spot a crisis and get tactical.
