Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: It’s Not Over!

There are many obstacles in a chess game which players have to overcome.

There are continuous obstacles put by our opponents in front of us: threats of winning pawns and pieces, pins, double attack, double pawns, …

And there are obstacles which we ourselves put in our way.

One of them is the mental block. We experience it when seeing a clearly winning position. Then we relax and our brain refuses to think.

In today’s game, the player with White had a crushing position. He was a piece up and his opponent’s king trapped in the corner. It should be expected a bad state of mind for his opponent.
Nevertheless, the player with Black kept fighting. He set up traps until the very last move. That permanent process of creating problems paid benefits at the end. White lost sight of what was happening on the board and allowed Black to escape.

Alexander Beliavsky was so much focussed on the threatening perpetual check with black rooks that at the critical moment he didn’t see the second Black’s resource: the stalemate.

In fact, stalemate is more frequent in positions with few pieces on the board, usually pawns and king. With so many pieces like in today’s game, is very easy to lower the guard.

Because of COVID pandemic, the Nairobi Chess Club site remains closed until further notice.
Nevertheless, our virtual Chess.com club regularly organizes online tournaments and matches. More than 420 members enjoy that chance and new members join every week. New tournaments will start soon and there is Blitz every Saturday. Join now! Limited slots!.

Get updated about COVID-19 checking the website World Health Organization which includes links to country-specific information. Stay safe!