what the #$%^was he playing and how did he win?

The above position is from a 45/45 game, am white, and my clock is ticking it's last 25 seconds or so and failed to see THE MOVE.   Guess I too will have to concentrate on tactics so that in future the mouse just knows what to do automatically!  Thought I'd share this as something instructive.

@ aronchuck

Yeah, it can all be broken down to the 3 Questions but beginners haven't developed the board vision to see every sacrifice coming so when they get hit with one emotions often do come into play. I look at the sacrifice as a special tyle of tactic because there is usually far more at stake in either material gained or threat of immediate mate. So its a good way to reinforce your basic thinking by being able to successfully defend a sacrifice (or not if Fischer or Tal is on the other side of the board) For me its usually calculating power that gets me out of it, once I see the sacrifice its usually pretty obvious what he wants to achieve with it. So I'm wondering if it can be used to fine tune your thinking & improve board vision.

@ Tower_of_Joseph

How I would have loved to have that position!! But, time pressure can do many strange things & some ppl handle it better than others. I usually handled it ok which was just as well because I tended to get into it quite a bit, maybe I just got used to it, its hard to remember because its something you develope rather than learn outright.

too bad, you created that amazing position that one could only dream of finding in an elementary tactics puzzle like the ones I work on ;-> only to have insufficient time to catch it! Speaks I guess to a few things 1. you built a fantastic position 2. you didn't manage time well enough to leave yourself enough time to finish the job you had so expertly set up 3. more work on elementary tactics with lots of repetition will equip you to handle moves like that instantaneously. But super cool that you set up that position!

so how did the game continue? The game says that you  (White) won. How did it end?

@ToJ: what was the process by which you discovered your error at move #35. Was it engine analysis first, your own painstaking analysis, or did you quickly go over the game and when you got to your move 35. Nxg6 did you slap yourself on the forehead and yell "I can't believe it! I can't believe it!" Or some variant?

Its actually a serious question. I wonder how players of different levels arrive at their realizations, and you are at a level that is somewhat unique for this thread...so I'm interested. thanks

Actually what happened was that after move 11 got an  international long distance call and couldnt dismiss it just like that, so when I got back to game, instead of 49 minutes now  had 31.  

I don't completely understand. you got the LD call at move 11, so you came back for your move 12 with 31 minutes left. When and how did you discover the missed mate by double check? That's what I'm asking. What was the process you went through to discover that missed tactic? and were all the moves after 35 played in 25 secs? That was a lot of quick moves!! (maybe I misunderstood when you wrote "its last 25 seconds or so and failed to see THE MOVE"). 

I used engine. Tactically  can be very blind. And a lot of times am playng by intuition, or experience or combinatio of both. For example in this opening and as black  and with a similar attack from white I have been put away.  But I have seen similar puzzles where you decoy piece on diagonal and  queen or bishop behind knight are ready to go for the jugular with a discovered double check. 

And when egine showed the mate in two I had mixed emotions. Exhilarated that yes  the thrust of the game was the "correct" one, for the level of chess played anyway. And disappointed that all thta work did not culminate in the great expectacle that was coming. Actuall the 45 add on kept me alive and manage to inrease time.

Still, that Nxg6+ was very tempting with that pin on h7 and the pin on the Rg7. IT would be easy to see those two pins and figure that Black was in a straightjacket without calculating it out. I guess you missed seeing the Q. I guess you may have claculated all those exchanges and that you'd be ahead in the endgame.  All of that would contribute to the temptation to not look longer and find that killer mate. 

Took me 1 min and 57 secs to make move 35 and just before the actual move had 14 seconds total left.  When move was completed now had 59 secs.

He won because you only have 4 pawns and he has 7 pawns...

yes! Exhilirated that yes the thrust of the game was the correct one!! And now you're going to practice tactics repetitions so that will never happen again and obviously you'll improve and become so much stronger. Nice. 

A sharp tactitian, like a master, would have seen that in his sleep and yours truly  should have seen if more up on his tactics.  Thats why people like Dan Heisman stress doing repitious  easy tactics like the one missed.  That way even if brain dead because of time trouble memory in hand muscle will pick up the right piece and put it in the  right square. 

ToJ: you and I wrote the same thing at the same time . You WILL do those repetitions. We know it, because of this game you posted. 

@ ToJ

If you play enough of these type of games they will imprint on you. Playing out positions OTB with a clock ticking will imprint far better than studying positions in a book & if you miss it in the game it will still stick in your head from the post game analysis or showing others like us. Books & online puzzles are a very good foundation for tactics but there is NO substitute for actually doing it OTB under pressure. I bet if you see a similar position anytime in your future you will pounce on immediately.

From personal experience I find that knowing a puzzle is a puzzle changes the dynamics somewhat. eg, the Daily Puzzle often gives a clue in the title as to what to look for in the solution. Or just the fact that it is a puzzle tells me to look for certain things like forcing moves. Puzzles have to have that otherwise they don't work as puzzles. This is why when I coach (my family now or beginners in the past) I stressed the value of converting book study to actual games & its actually easier than it sounds.

I went through Reinfields book 1001 checkmates (or whatever its called) at least 3 times until I could do them all almost instantly. Then I got lucky & chose an opening that had a very tactical middle game for lots of sacrifice opportunities. Everyone should have such an opening in their repertoire just to keep themselves tactically sharp. I won't mention the word Stonewall again (Ooops) but I also used the Kings Gambit & I'm sure there are many other suitable candidates, just can't think of any at the moment. I also used the Grunfeld & the Sicilian for similar reasons.