Idiocy in Analysis

Idiocy in Analysis

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You heard me right. Idiocy in Analysis.

It's simply amazing how many people give an incorrect evaluation of the position, or miscalculate (usually due to erroneous thinking processes). An incorrect analysis is a trap that I often fall into in my blog posts, due to my reluctance to use the engine.

Some go so far as to even miss a checkmate in one or two moves! The following three positions are from Christian Hesse's book The Joys of Chess:

Grandmaster Isaak Boleslavsky is quite well-know for being an advocate of the King's Indian. In fact, he loved the opening so much that he once gave a "slightly incorrect" analysis of a position:

Boleslavky's assessment: Black has good counterplay.

Actual assessment: White checkmates in 3 moves with the simple 1.h6+ Kg8 2.Qf6! and 3.Qg7#

Amazing! A top grandmaster missing a three-mover?

But things get even more ignominous for analysts. The following assesment by the masters Dufrense and Mieses is simply brummagem:

Black has just played 9...Ne7.

The authors' assessment: Black has the superior position

Actual assessment: White checkmates in one with 10.Nd6#

Oops!

And now to close of this blog, a brobdingnanian error that probably made Steinitz want to do a defenestration:

Steinitz gave this comment to black's move:

"But what an analytical revelation opened itself before my eyes. And, of course, any modern expert will see at a glance that this is the right move, overlooked by all analysts and practioneers for about 35 years."

What words, but only if they were true! Steinitz's daughter, Hedwig Steinitz, immediately found the winning

10.Bxf7+! Nxf7 11.Re1+ and we can say "bye-bye" to black's queen.

Steinitz, who had published this analysis in the New York Sun, wrote a letter to the nespaper. The Sun commented: "So the Evan's Gambit holds its ground!"

The conclusion? One must always recheck for quick and painful checkmates in one or more. Perhaps that would have saved some of our poor analysts who commited these monstrous errors.



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