Finishing

The hardest game to win is a won game. – Emanuel Lasker

Have you ever launched a do or die attack only to have it fizzle out? I certainly have. Here's my latest example.

At move 17 I saw a win. I really did! But I goofed. The move I didn't see at the time was the last one, Kh8. After he plays that I'm done. If he moves the other way, I had a beautiful mate all ready to spring on him.

So what did I do wrong? As Lasker also said: "Sit on your hands!" In such situations you need to take extra time to really work through all the combinations. But the real flaw was I attacked from too weak a position. His rooks were lined up on an open file, his queen was up front and active, his pawns were not weakend, and his king was safe. It was an unsound attack. Doomed to failure from the start.

Now take a look at the following games. In both these king chases, I had positional advantages. I had a qualitative majority, meaning I had more pieces at the point of attack than my opponent, their Kings were crammed, pawns weakend, lines exposed, and piece mobility was compomised. All good indications for success. Enjoy!

This was a Sicilian where a chose a Be3, f3, Qd2, O-O-O setup to launch a Yugoslav Attack. My opponent made an interesting sacrifice to squash it, but i found a way to take advantage of my strengths.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This game was a French Defense, Tarrasch Variation with 3 Nd2. My opponent ignored his king safety and failed to recognise the key square e5. Once I obtained control of this square, I launched an unstoppable attack.