GameKnot: Chess related, Chess Regrets / aka The One That Got Away ...

Chess related: Chess Regrets / aka The One That Got Away ...

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baronderkilt
17-Feb-10, 06:43

Chess Regrets / aka The One That Got Away ...

I was just reading algol mention a source for out-of-print books in another thread. Got me thinking, now I sure wish I had bought that MCO-10 (the last by GM Larry Evans) for $10 when I saw it in the used bookstore a decade ago.
***
So I was wondering what your Chess Regret(s) might be?

A book you want? A tournament missed? Taking some Draw you were offered in the Gents Room,
only to return and find he made the only blunder on the whole board from a dead even (or previously favorable to him/her) position? A Chess Set sold or given away regrettably? Failure to play a simul or take a lesson? Maybe starting the game in the first place ?!? Or dropping out of med school to become a Chess pro? Not dropping out of med school to become a Chess pro? Or giving up that Professional Postal Chess position when you could not live on $50 a year?! Maybe not holding out for a Chess playing spouse? ...Reading this post ?!
***
}8-D ... doesn't my smiley remind you of Tessa Brix ?!! I just noticed it myself.

algol
17-Feb-10, 06:54

MCO 10

Here you have it for $3 plus shipping www.amazon.com
Need to think about your other questions....

ionadowman
17-Feb-10, 12:08

I was almost tempted...

... to offer you my copy of MCO10, Craig...

I have two major regrets...

The first is the loss of a favorite 'bedside chess book', Irving Chernev's "Bright Side of Chess" (I think I've mentioned this before).

I also have a slight regret, a wistful feeling, about a Club Championship game played against a very strong opponent, now an IM, who was to win the South Island Championship a few weeks later. You might want to see the plot.

White: Russell Dive, Black: Ion A. Dowman
Wellington, 5 Aug 1986. Time control: 36:90; 15 min sudden death thereafter.
King's Indian Defence; Kramer Variation (which I'd never seen before...)
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 d6 3.Nc3 g6 4.e4 Bg7
5.Nge2 0-0 6.Ng3 Nbd7 7.Be2 e4 8.d5 a5
9.h4 h6 10.Be3 Nc5 11.Qd2 Kh7 12.h5 g5
13.f3 Ne8 14.Qc2 ...
b
Black seems to be in a bit of a bind. What to play here?

14...a4? (Yeah. Brilliant.)
15.Bxc5 dxc5 16.Nxa4 b6 17.Nc3 Nd6 18.Nb5 Bxf5
19.exf5 Bf6 20.g4 Re8 21.Bd3 Ra5 22.0-0 ...
b
Need... (gasp) ... air ...

22...e4! 23.Nxe4 Nxe4 24.Bxe4 Qd6
Suddenly all those dark squares are looking interesting!

25.Kg2 Qf4 26.Rf2 b5!? 27.cxb5 Rxb5 28.Rb1 Be5
29.Kf1 Qg3 30.Qe2 Reb8 31.b3 Qh3+ 32.Rg2 Bd4
33.Ke1 Ra5
(I was already down to less than a minute for the remaining moves to the time control...)

34.Qf1 ...
b
Black's attack gains momentum...

34...c4!
35.Rd2 Qh4+!?
Possibly better was ...Qg3+. The problem was in deciding whether I ought to stay on the h2-b8 diagonal, or would the Q need to be able to reach h1 at some point.

36.Kd1 Be3 37.Rc2?! ...
During the game I was wondering what I would play against 37.Re2. I think this alternative would have been the better choice.

37...cxb3 38.axb3 Rb4 39.f6+ Rxe4! 40.fxe4 Qxg4+
At this point I had already used 9 of my remaining 15 minutes. Russell hadn't even used up all his initial 90 minutes yet! He still had 25 minutes left!

41.Ke1 Qxe4 42.Qc4 Bd4+ 43.Qe2 Qh4+ 44.Kd1 Rxd5
w
Black seems to have a strong attack. What should White play?

45.Qf3?? ...
Not this!

45...Bc3+! 46.Ke2 Qh2+ 47.Qf2 Re5+ 48.Kf1 Qh1+
49.Qg1 Rf5+ 50.Rf2 Rxf2+!? 51.Kxf2 Bd4+
Black is, of course, winning on the board, but there was the small matter of his remaining 10 minutes, and my ... one.

52.Ke2 Bxg1 53.Rd1 ...
At this point I stopped recording, having only seconds left. And I didn't win - or even draw. I ran out of time with white still in possession of his f- and h-pawns, the rook and the c-pawn having disappeared in the interim. I gather these days that 'insufficient losing chances' would have given me the draw, and I would have been more than happy with that. Probably I ought to have played something like
53...Qxh5+ 54.Kd2 Be3+ 55.Ke1 Qf3 then shove the g-pawn.

So near, and yet...

algol
17-Feb-10, 12:52

Bedside book

I did not know that one. I see on eBay that it has 175 pages and contains "Magical problems, endings and "flights of fancy", the fifteen most beautiful games of all times, anecdotes about great masters...". Well, plenty of second hand copies available. Cheapest I see are $3.25 + international shipping: www.amazon.com

Complex game you had going there, may put it own my board tonight.

jstevens1
19-Feb-10, 12:07

Sick as a Parrott

Hi everyone!

I have a missed opportunity for you here. I have just annotated the following game and I need to chunder it right out of my system.

gameknot.com

Hope you have a nice read of this over the weekend.

Bye for now.

Joanne

blake78613
19-Feb-10, 13:16

My biggest regret was not doing a post mortem with a 12 year old opponent. I was playing White in a Two Knights Defense and had just played 4 N-g5. My 12 year opponent immediately played 4 ...Bc5. I thought if this kid is booked up on the Wilkes-Barre am I ever in trouble. I didn't know if I was supposed to take the f-pawn with the knight or the bishop. I started looking for a safe way not to take the pawn. Then I looked at my opponent and a tear was rolling down his cheek. I could tell he thought he had blundered; so I took the pawn. He went into a defensive shell and quickly lost the game. He walked away very rejected. I wanted very badly to take him into an adjourning room and analyze with him. Most of all, I wanted to explain to him that he had nothing to lose at that point, and should have gone on the attack. I finally decided against it. To this day I regret not talking to him.

baronderkilt
19-Feb-10, 16:21

Thanks ALGOL !

I am not playing as much now, but I think I will still get the MCO-10, then I can stop regretting it~! And probably get that book mentioned by ionadowman also. Sounds like a good read, and those are hard to find.

tactical_abyss
19-Feb-10, 17:53

Deleted by tactical_abyss on 19-Feb-10, 17:54.

tactical_abyss
19-Feb-10, 17:56

I have the MCO books from MCO-12 to MCO-15.If I remember correctly,the MCO-12 was written in descriptive notation instead of algebraic notation...i'd have to recheck again,but I believe so anyway.So I assume that MCO-10 is written in descriptive notation instead of algebraic?Yes,no?

ionadowman
20-Feb-10, 13:19

tactical_abyss

Yep. I have MCO10 and MCO11 Both are in Desciptive.

Speaking of which: I rather regret the passing of Descriptive. I always preferred the old notation - you got more of a feel of the game if you were glancing though it. And there was something much more satisfying about a sequence like

15.BxR+ NxB
16.Q-N8+ NxQ
17.R-Q8#

Instead of
15.Bxd7+ Nxd7
16.Qb8+ Nxb8
17.Rd8#

Oh - here's the diagram from which the move sequence follows...
w

tactical_abyss
20-Feb-10, 14:40

I'll have to add a few more MCO's to my collection one day.The used book stores online have just about anything for good prices.Being from the old school,I grew up with and also prefer descriptive.For me it is the only "true authentic language"of chess,but times have changed.Alegebraic does have a tendency to be easier to record in OTB,in book reading as well as being less error prone and more precise with reading and writing.I remember plenty of "ambiguities"occurring in postal chess over the years due to descriptive and later the ambiguities occurred more rarely when algebraic arrived on the scene.
However,this does not change my mind about my preference with descriptive.I still prefer to record all my select personal games in short descriptive.

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