Chess_Mistakes.pdf

Contents

The Game of Mistakes

Tactical Errors

Mistakes with Pieces

Calculation and Miscalculation

Positional Errors

Strategic Errors

Your Attitnde Is Your Error

Practical Mistakes

Errors with Matelial

101

124

153

179

201

The Game of Mistakes

Chess is a game of bad moves. It is, in fact, the game that most

depends on error, No game has a greater variety of ways of going

wrong or gives you as many opportunities-dozens on every move.

Other games depend heavily on chance or on the mastery of

some relatively limited skills. But a chess game is decided by the

failings of one of the players.

Yet we refuse to recognize this. \Ve like to think the game is

a battle between good moves and better moves. vVhen we win,

we tell ourselves-and anyone who wlll listen-that the critical

diference was our ine maneuvering, our positional cunning, or

our tactical ingenuity. \Vhen we lose, weIl, it was a stupid mis

take-as if errors were an aberration, an extraordinary accident.

Mistakes can only be messy, ugly, and dislUptive, we say.

Regardless of our own success, we like to think a chess game

should be won, not lost. (We thereby ignore that most vital skill,

the ability to e'Ploit enemy mistakes.) vVe try to elevate the

game to some level it can never achieve-at least not wl1i1e ifs

being played by humans.

The masters know better. They know that a well-played game

is not an error-free game. There are errors of varying magnitudes,

and each game is sure to hold some smaIl mistakes. «Chess is the

struggle against error," said Johannes Zukertort, one of the great

est players of the last century. Victory belongs to the player who

struggles best-not just against an opponent, but against himself.

And the fact is that most games, even at the grandmaster level,

Catalog of Chess Mistakes

are constant struggles. Look at the 1972 world championship

match, the most talked-about chess contest ever. What were the

memorable moves when Fischer met Spassky?

The ones that stand out include: . Fischer's strange loss of a

piece in the irst game; Spassky's double-barreled oversight in

the eighth game, losing the Exchange on the 15th move and a

pawn on the 19th move; the Russian's sloppy opening and long

defense in the 13th game, which ended with suicidal collapse

on the 69th move; Spas sky's careless oversight in the following

game. Suice it to say that the match ended with a mistake,

Spassky's erroneous sealed move in the inal game. 1vlistnkes were

the match.

Unique? Hardly. There were more good moves than bad ones

in the 1972 match, but the bad ones counted more. The same can

be said of the 1978 world championship match and most other

contests that come to mind.

What Is a Mistake?

"Where did I make my mistake?" asked the loser, an Australian

master. "I didn't know what to say)" said the winner, a Russian

grandmaster. There wasn't one move you could pin the blame on.

Yet by the 14th move ""hite was already in grave trouble.

Hanks-Kotov, Melboume 1963-1. P-Q4 P-Q3 2. P-K4 P-KN3

3. N-QB3 B-N2 4. B-K2 N-QB3 5. B-K3 N-B3 6. P-Q5 N-QN1

7. N-B3 P-B4 8. P-KR3

0-0 9. N-Q2 N-Kl 10. 00 N-B2 11.

P-QR4 QN-R3 12. P-B4 N-N5 13. N-B4 P-B4! 14. P-K5 P-N3!

15. B-B3 B-QR3 16. P-QN3 BxN 17. PxB PxP 18. PxP BxP 19.

R-R3 N-Kl! 20. P-Q6 NxP! 21. BxR QxB 22. Q-K2 BxN 23. RxB

N-K5 24. B-Q2 P-K4! 25. B-R6 NxR 26. QxP N-K7ch 27. K-B2

R-B2 28. QxN Q-K5 and Black won.

The Game of Mistakes

14 .. . . P-N3

Position after

Wbite didn't have to throw himself on a sword with 25.B-R6?!,

but he would have been quite lost after

5. R-QN3 NxP and 26 .

. . . N-Q5.The search for a "losing move" must begin earlier.

White lost because of several almost miniscule failings. He

compromised his center early (6.P-Q5?!) and then lost ime (8.

P-KR3? rather than 8. N-Q2!). He had to make furher conces

sions (11. P-QR4?!-to avoid ... P-QN4 when he plays N-B4)

and then gave away the last hope of supporting his center (12.

P-B4?).By the 15th move be saw he was losing his QP or KP, and

evelything followed from that.

None of these moves seems fatal.Yet added up, they destroyed

White before the second cup of cofee. Nor was Black free from

error. With 7 .... P-B3! he could have begun the attack on the

White center even earlier.

We can recognize the truly bad moves when they are pun

ished qUickly.It is the other 98 percent of a chess game that leaves

uS confused.

A typical move has good and bad qualities. On the Simplest

level, a move-any move-attacks and protects certain squares

while withdrawing contact from others. A move may strengthen

our pawn structure, expand the scope of our bishops, and make

major threat, all at once. But whether the move is good or bad

depends on an evaluation of its minuses as well as its pluses.That

same move may walk into

a tactical pin. It may remove a piece

from a theater subject to imminent attack. It may reduce tension

when you want to heighten it. Or its biggest fault may simply be

that there is a superior move available.

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