Missed mates

I showed up to work today to see a minivan parked next to my place of employment, and two boys (roughly 5 and 3) with their pants down around their ankles urinating on the building. And the thought crossed my mind... "Not a day goes by that I don't think about doing that."

This brings me to my desired topic. Mates I have missed. I could go a couple of different directions with this topic, but we'll keep this family friendly.

Do you ever find yourself playing chess and unexpectedly looking for a mate. You are not sure why, you didn't see the possibility the move before, but the current position just somehow looks like a puzzle position. Your Spidey senses are tingling.

When this happens to me I usually force myself to just make the best move I can find, but I make a note of the position to look at it later.

The following are a few positions that set off my spidey senses, and I later found that my senses were going off for a good reason. I wish I had seen these.

Here is one I almost had, I just missed a key move.

These are some of the ones that got away. I'd love to get to a point where these would not only prick my spidey senses... but be viewable to my conscious mind.

Practice practice practice.