How to Avoid Blunders. Part 4
The kind of blunders we are going to discuss today is by far the most popular one. There is no chess player who has never experienced this kind of blunder.
4.) Blunders due to time trouble
I bet you can immediately remember the painful blunders you committed when you didn't have time to think about your moves since your only objective at that time was just to play any move and avoid a time forfeit.
The list of games lost due to time trouble is really endless. So here are just two examples of blunders made by extremely strong chess players in time trouble:
Karpov, Anatoly vs. Kasparov, Gary
Ch World (match) (5) | 1987 | ECO: D87 | 1-0
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Bg7 7. Bc4 c5 8. Ne2 Nc6 9. Be3 O-O 10. O-O Bg4 11. f3 Na5 12. Bxf7+ Rxf7 13. fxg4 Rxf1+ 14. Kxf1 Qd6 15. e5 Qd5 16. Bf2 Rf8 17. Kg1 Bh6 18. h4 Qf7 19. Bg3 Be3+ 20. Kh2 Qc4 21. Rb1 b6 22. Rb2 Qd5 23. Qd3 Nc4 24. Rb1 b5 25. Kh3 a6 26. Ng1 cxd4 27. Nf3 Rd8 28. a4 dxc3 29. Qxc3 Qe6 30. Kh2 bxa4 31. Rb4 Nd2 32. Rxa4 Nf1+ 33. Kh3 Rd1 34. Qc2 Rc1 35. Qe2 h5 36. Be1 Qd7 37. Qxa6 Ra1?? 38. Qxg6+ ( 38. Rxa1?? Qxg4# )
This is a game from a World Championship match, and Black is in terrible time trouble. You have to be a very strong player in order to see a tactical shot like 37...Ra1 when the last seconds of your time are running away. But if you have at least a couple of minutes, then you don't need to be Kasparov to see that 37... Ra1 is a terrible blunder and after the intermediate 38. Qxg6+ White protects his g4 pawn first and then captures the Ra1.
The next game is even more dramatic. White has two forced checkmates (in 3 and in 4 moves). Try to find both of them.
Reshevsky, S H. vs. Savon, V A.
Petropolis Izt
1973
ECO: A77 | 0-1
White to move
39... Kh6
So, you found both of them didn't you? If not, then you can replay the whole game and see the annotations if you click "Solution" and then "Move list".
Now, which checkmate do you think White preferred in the game? Neither! One of the best US Grandmasters Samuel Reshevsky was well known for his horrible time troubles and here, when his flag was about to fall, he thought that he found a checkmate in one! He played 40. Qxg6?? (the last move before the time control!) and after 40...Bxg6 immediately resigned. You can argue that it was tricky since Black's Bb1 was far away, but in my opinion it only underlines a simple fact: anything can happen in time trouble! So, your best way to prevent this kind of blunders is just to avoid time troubles. I know, I know, it is easy to say but not that easy to actually do. Here are a couple of tips that could help you:
- Chess is all about making decisions. So, when you are not completely sure about your idea, learn to trust your intuition more. I read somewhere a humorous, but very wise saying of Emmanuel Lasker: "make your mistakes with conviction". If you avoid time trouble by playing faster than usual, then you may or may not make a mistake. In time trouble you will make a mistake for sure!
- Use your opponent's time! Sounds obvious, but most of chess players prefer to walk around playing area analysing somebody else's position instead of his/her own game!
- Prepare your openings! Besides an obvious benefit of playing good moves in a theoretical position, you'll also save some time on your clock in the opening!
I truly hope that this simple advice will help you to avoid or at least minimize your time trouble blunders!
to be continued....
No comments:
Post a Comment