Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Incredible Turnaround

It is commonly accepted a huge difference between beginners and masters. However, it is possible to identify differences between GMs too. Most beginners idealize masters believing that they are able to find the best move in every position. Nevertheless, reality continuously shows that that is not the case.

For example, in the FIDE World Rapid Championship 2021, viewers could see how the German GM Rasmus Svane outplayed Dutch GM Anish Giri in round four. Svane got a winning queen endgame with two pawns up and struggled to find the winning moves. Queen endgames are difficult even for GMs and with a few seconds, Svane tried to finish the game. Eventually, in a moment of relaxation, he blundered and lost.

The diagram below shows the position and the last moves of that game:

As you see, the rating gap between those two GMs is around 100 points. While in general knowledge of the game that difference could be not a significant factor, in particular issues like today’s queen endgame it gives the edge.

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