Der Alter Goniff

One of the hardest things to do in chess is to realize that your position is becoming bad.

Tell me this hasn't happend to you: at some point in the game, you feel that you have a small advantage, or at least comfortable equality, and you try to improve your position. Your attempts don't lead anywhere, and you start to feel that you're under a little pressure. But you haven't made any mistakes that you can see, so you just keep playing normal chess. You still don't get anywhere, and suddenly you realize that you're worse. Your opponent has all the play, and you can only sit there and defend. Eventualy you crack, and rack up another loss.

Sometimes, you don't ever realize that you were adrift, and you blame the loss on the final tactical mistake, the one you made when you cracked. The only way you're going to realize what really happened is by carefully analysing the game afterward.

I can't give you any advice about how to spot when you're starting such a slide. If I knew that, I'd be a much stronger player than I am. I can, however, make a suggestion about stopping the slide if you notice it in time: consider disrupting the material balance. A well-timed positional sacrifice can take the pressure off, and give your opponent the problem of trying to use the extra material.

Here's a correspondence game I recently finished against a very experienced Belgian master. I realized while thinking about my 28th move that I was in danger of slipping into a passive, prospectless position, so I sacrificed a Pawn to weaken my opponent's Pawn structure and give my minor pieces--especially my Knight--squares to occupy and targets to attack. I could see that in some cases, I could force my opponent to either give back the Pawn or exchange pieces in a way that let me block all his ways of making progress. And that's how it worked out!

Now, if I can start doing this in over-the-board games, I'll be getting somewhere.

// posted by ed g. @ 11:57 AM