Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Christiansen’s Swindle
Sometimes, in a lost position, players manage to induce the opponent into the illusion of hurry. You play quickly, the opponent reacts in the same way and then increases the chance of catching him in a swindle.
GM Paul Benko explained those moments as follow: “if you have a lost position, you may as well try speed chess -you can only lose a game once. Maybe your opponent will get rattled and blow his advantage”
GM Larry Christiansen used successfully that strategy in his game against James Burden in Las Vegas 1992. After only 18 moves, Burden had trapped his opponent’s queen getting an advantage of queen against rook and pawn. Rating difference between both players was important. At that time, GM Christiansen had a FIDE rating of 2625, against Burden’s 2200.
In that unusual situation, Christiansen started playing faster. NM Todd Bardwick explains what happened: “Christiansen hung his queen in the early middle game and had a hopelessly lost position. He then moved quickly, hoping to get Burden caught up in a faster paced game where the probability of his opponent making a mistake increased. The idea worked as the game actually speeded up to a blitz pace where Burden ended up blundering away a game he would have never lost had he taken his time.”
After getting a lost position, Christiansen started blitzing moves. The excitement induced into his opponent the illusion of hurry and provoked that he started blitzing too.
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