Wednesday, June 20, 2012

How Not to Play Chess

In this game, White thoughtfully gives up his dark-squared bishop for a knight, weakening his dark squares and giving Black the bishop pair. He then allows Black to occupy e3, completely blockading White's position. A queen trade doesn't stop Black from developing a mating attack. White should have played 17.Bg2 Rhd8 18.Nf2 Rxc4, when he is busted but at least avoids immediate loss. Instead, he stumbled into mate.

2 comments:

Bill Brock said...

An "eww" game with valuable moral lessons.

White traded the Bg5, and never made use of f2-f3, so the e3 square was horribly weak. Trading the queens didn't help, did it? White's weakness on the dark squares persisted: like a cancer it spreads to the light squares.

Frederick Rhine said...

Yes, Bronstein made a comment like that: if you're weak on the dark squares you're also weak on the light squares, because the opponent will use his pieces on the dark squares to strike at yours on the light squares.