The Chess Mind

A few days ago, Shirov reminded the rank-and-file that errare humanum est; for those in need of further proof, German great Robert Huebner "improved" on Shirov's 13-move loss by resigning a Bundesliga game from this Saturday after making his 12th move! While the Shirov loss was explicable - he was underprepared in a very sharp, very dangerous line - Huebner's blunder strains credulity. In a position where his opponent had an obvious threat - one that is extremely well-known from cognate positions - Huebner not only failed to prevent it; he positively encouraged it!

Whatever the explanation, such accidents (assuming it wasn't some sort of protest game) are worthy of note and a comfort to the amateur's soul: we're all fallible - very fallible.

Click here for the horror.

About a week ago, I presented this position as an exercise: Black to move and at least ease the burden of White's initiative:



(Capablanca-Alekhine, 1927 World Championship Match, game 15, position after 17.Rd2)

Several readers wrote in with helpful comments and suggestions, most of which are incorporated into my notes, which also include commentary from Polugaevsky (from Lyev Polugaevsky and Iakov Damsky's The Art of Defence in Chess. Ironically, while I have the book, I wouldn't have thought to look had it not been for MM's comment to the original post), Koblenz (from his Lehrbuch der Schachtaktik, Band 2) and from the Chess Stars volume on Capablanca.

Click here.