H&B

Definitely a brain thing.

'The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men'.. Post mortems are a hilarious&humbling part of chess, the part potentially helping our game most, via catharsis. All we believed in or meant to have seen during a game, or most of it, turns out to be a fantasy. I'm playing with huge blinkers, and sometimes during the post mortem I hand them over to my playing partners or try on theirs and we are laughing. Engine consultations only add to this.

Position #1

Pamvo and Powder have just played

14. .. e7-e5

So I said 'pawn', in order to win a pawn. But the en passant opportunity would not occur to my partner Herman, who was muttering 'So, my brain instructs me to sac a bishop?' The second best pawn move

15.c4-c5

was duly chosen and we continued pawn down.

Position #2

Powder and Pamvo have just played

19. .. b7-b5

I wanted to say 'pawn' so Herman could play 20.b2-b4, but then I saw a ghost. It's a nice one, so I will explain: I was looking at

20.b2-b4

but then what I saw coming was

20. .. Qa5xa3 21.Rb1-a1 Qa3xb4 22.Re1-b1 Nf6xe4!

Proudly, responsibly I discarded b2-b4 and opted for a measly 'bishop' call. Pamvo & Powder capitalized with formidable pawn advances, and Herman had to loaf around with our bishop pair until he had enough and traded it down. Could I have surpassed my horizon, I could have found what Stockfish told me,

22.f2-f3!

preparing to trap the queen with Re1-b1 instead of not trapping it with Re1-b1 right away. It's quite amazing that we should have time to make a quiet pawn move and still trap the queen here (analysis position after 21. .. Qa3xb4, before 22.f2-f3)

We had dropped another pawn and awaited rooks and knights to show up in our camp, supported by the a- and c-passers. My strategical decision, which Herman seemed to agree to, was to not weaken the kingside and to not try and conjure an improbable pawn storm attack. So we stayed calm and managed to defend our castle with a few king moves and g2-g3.

The following position #3 occurred after

37. Re3-a3 Qa5-b6

38.Kh2-g1

(I would have preferred king to g2, which defends more squares, is off the back rank, and the pawn f2 is not pinned).

Pamvo calls 'knight', maybe to get Nc5 or Nhf6 or both. Powder chooses to go kingside with

38. .. Ndf6

The knights grazing far away we have a chance on the queenside. After quite a some struggling of all four players, white eventually wins back a pawn and gets active play.

In this position #4 after

49. Ra3xa6 Rc7-c4

I had eyed Ra6-c6. But Herman's

50.Ra6xd6

set up a trap: After

50. .. Nf6xe4 ?

it's a pity I completely missed

51.Rd6-d8+ Kg8-g7

52.d6!

which is an eminently quick passer. Instead, I called 'bishop' and we traded down with 51. Bxe4. Herman, did you hope for a 'rook' call? Stockfish I couldn't ask and I (your brain) didn't have it.

A few moves later, the white knight has arrived on c8 via a7, the white rook has vacated the promotion square and attacks f7. Position #5 after

58. .. Kg5-f5

It is la comedie humaine time: I nominate 'pawn' for white, in view of the variants

59. d6-d7 Nf6xd7

60. Rf8xf7+

Now, as black does not have

60. .. Nd7-f6 ?

61. Nc8-d6+ K~

62. Rf7xf6 Kxf6

63. Nd6-e4+

black should rather play

60. .. Kf5-e6

61. Rf7-e7+ and white wins a pawn.

Of course, Herman does not play d7 but

59. h3-h4

I am so flattened by this miss, I can't believe it. Argument: If a) I miss all sorts of tactics but b) find this one, then c) everybody must find this tactic Pamvo and Powder play

59. .. Kf5-e6

It's tragic I can find the fork onto f6 and c5 once and think o, we so lucky, and if Herman somehow misses it, bite my shoe, fully unaware of the fact that a knight c8 has two ways to fork f6 and c5 in two moves! And that the new king move has not changed that and with

60. Nc8-b6

we can still draw actively, because

60. .. Ke6xd6

is met by

61. Rf8xf7

and if

61. .. Kd6-e6

62. Rf7xf6 Ke6xf6

63. Nb6-d7+

would even win again.

I saw the move one day later. In this game, however, it is integral part of la comedie humaine that, after my measly 'rook' order, disenabling Nc8-b6, it takes Herman two more moves to build an absurd fortress (that our Stockfish evaluates 0.00) and thus fetches us four a draw

Position #7