Tuesday 31 December 2019

More Reasons to be Cheerful

In the first post on this subject (August 31, 2019), I presented a game lost in three moves by a former Soviet Champion, with the hope that it might console us a bit when we - as we inevitably would - lost a catastrophic game. But there are other types of loss which can be even more painful and more disheartening - those that happen when you are just outplayed from beginning to end. You get no chances; no counter-play; no activity - its just defend, defend, defend until in the end you get put out of your misery and have to concede that not only have you lost, but you have been given a lesson.

Fear not, though, dear readers, for such a disaster can befall even the best, as I will now show you. I won't reveal the players until you've had a chance to play through the game, and in particular until you've had a chance to study the final position.



Wow! Have you ever seen greater domination of the chess board than that? Look at the Black pieces, huddled pathetically in the top right corner of the board, while the White army bestrides the world like a Colossus (thank you, Mr Shakespeare). Surely this is a case of master versus amateur? Only a complete patzer could get so outplayed. Well, apparently not!

The player of the White pieces was, indeed, very strong - the great Vassily Ivanchuk - and as the game was played at the 1991 Linares Super Tournament, its clear that the Black pieces must also have been the responsibility of someone not too shabby. And that is indeed the case, since it was the one and only Garry Kasparov, possibly the greatest chess player of all time, who was on the receiving end of that almighty shellacking. I doubt he has ever been so outplayed in his life, and he cannot have been in a very good mood at the end!

So here we have another reason to be cheerful - if even Garry can be made to look like a total beginner, there is hope for us all yet. So let's all have the ambition for 2020 of playing like Kasparov - only not like in that game!

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