Don’t Stop Playing Until The Game Is Done

“It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” – Yogi Berra

Admit it.  We’ve all been there.  After a carefully executed opening and tense middle game, you reach a position that is easily won.  You breathe a sigh of relief and embark confidently on the road to certain victory.  But, something happens on the way to the win.  Your brain takes a holiday, you make an absurd move, and there it is—in a moment you have blundered away the game only to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory.

I was chatting to my friend, Mark Kaprielian, about this syndrome the other day as he recounted a situation from a game of his.  I understood the issue all too well having been on both sides of this sort of turning of the tide.  Here are two examples from recent play where I was the beneficiary of winning games I really didn’t deserve to win.

In the first example, I had the black pieces and had just played Qxd4.  In this position, white is clearly better because of black’s poor development and lack of piece coordination.  White should go on to win.  A simple move like 1. Qc6! looks very strong for white.  But, white zoned out and played 1. Kh1 to break the pin on the rook, completely ignoring his own back rank weakness.  Needless to say after 1. … Qa1+, white simply resigned as mate is unstoppable.

In the second example, I actually had a winning advantage myself with the black pieces, but that foolishly cut my rook off from the queenside allowing a white pawn to sail in for a queen.  Now, my situation is dire.  But, white obligingly played 1. Qc7 with the idea of crushing my f-pawn.  Play white’s move on the board to see what happened.  Yup, suddenly I was back in the game playing a many pawn vs. rook ending.  This turn of events so demoralized white, that he didn’t realize that he could still salvage a draw in the final position after 17. Kf4.

So, what lessons should we take from situations like this?

1. Never put your brain on automatic pilot. Play every move like the outcome is still uncertain.


2. Don’t become so enamored of your position that you stop considering your opponent’s ability to find counter play.


3. Always, play the whole board. Don’t become so focused on one aspect of the position that you miss the big picture.


4. When you make a blunder, don’t let it get to you. Take a deep breath; clear your head; and look at the game afresh. You may miss a chance to salvage a half point or better if you fold too early.

Comments

[++harvey]

Nice examples, thanks!

[Polly]

I certainly can relate to this. More times then I can count, I've tossed away an easily won position because my brain shutdown. Finally the other night I was the recipient of such a gift. I'm down the exchange and a pawn, and my opponent doggedly tries to get me to exchange queens. He ended out hanging a rook. I go up a bishop for a pawn.

PS. I can't get your diagrams to move the pieces. I was trying to solve problem in your triz post. Even after trying every move on the board, it would not give me the answer. Is it a browser problem? I'm using Firefox on a mac.

[James Todhunter]

Hi Polly,

I agree. While I hate tossing the easily won game, I do feel very fortunate when the tables are turned in my favor.

Sorry, you had difficulty with the problem widget. I have to try it out on Firefox. (I use IE.) One thing that confused a friend recent is that this widget doesn't support the click and drag method of moving the piece that you might be used to if you use ICC Dasher or ChessBase. Instead, it requires that you click and release the piece and then click on the square you want to move to.

If any one else is having trouble with the widget, I'd like to know. Maybe it's not worth using the problem mode.