Anyway, the prevalence of confused thinking and even blunders at the very highest level should come as some encouragement to all chess players, not just because it links us amateurs to those great masters, but also because it should teach us not to be desolated by our own inevitable errors.
One of the most charming books by an amateur, The Quiet Game, contains a wonderful selection of blunders (wonderful for everyone, that is, except for the perpetrators). The author, the late John Montgomerie, who represented Scotland in the 1937 Stockholm Chess Olympiad, explains better than most what it actually feels like at the moment the blunderer realises what he has missed: "All the symptoms described by the novelist as indicating shock can be experienced at such a moment: that sinking feeling in the stomach, a shiver down the spine, gooseflesh, blushing, deathly pallor: I have experienced them all!"
As a connoisseur of such agonies, Montgomerie considers that the most painful is one which causes the perpetrator to lose a game he has been playing brilliantly up to that moment — and when it also means he has thrown away not just that single game, but a championship he was about to seize.
He gives as example the following game between J. Gilchrist and D. MacIsaac, in the final round of the 1928 West of Scotland Championship, when both players shared the lead: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.c4 (coincidentally Gilchrist plays exactly the same line as Carlsen did against Anand's Sicilian defence in their fateful 6th match game) Qc7 6.Nc3 Nf6 7.Be2 Bb4 8.0-0 (a perfectly sound pawn sacrifice) Bxc3 9.bxc3 Nxe4 10.Bd3 Nf6 (10...Nc5 was better, but not 10...Nxc3 11. Qc2 trapping the greedy Knight) 11.Bg5 d6 12.Re1 Nbd7 13.Nf5 Kf8 14.Ng3 Ne5 15.Rxe5 (This, however, is unsound: but Black has to be very careful) dxe5 16.Bxf6 gxf6 17.Qh5 e4 (Understandably Black tries to bring his Queen into the defence. Yet 17...h6 was much better, taking a vital square from White's own Queen) 18.Qh6+ Ke7 19.Nxe4 Qe5 20.f4 Qf5 21.Nf2 Qc5 22.Kf1 (Neatly unpinning; unfortunately for White, it seems he later forgets his King is no longer on the standard square g1) f5 23.Qg5+ Kd6 24.Rd1 Kc7 25.Ne4 Qf8 26.c5 fxe4 (Fatal greed, or it should have been: after 26...Bd7 Black would have excellent chances to defend) 27.Qe5+ Kd8 28.Bb5+ Ke7 29. Qd6+ Kf6 30.Qe5+ Ke7 31.f5 (After repeating the position Gilchrist finds the winning move. As Montgomerie comments: "White is poised for victory and the championship. If 31...axb5 32.f6+ Ke8 33.Qc7 forces mate".) 31...Qh6 (Now 32.Qxh8 Qf4+ 33.Kg1 exf5 34.Qd8+ Ke6 35.Rd6+ Ke5 36.Qf6 is checkmate. But instead....) 32. f6+??? Qxf6 + and a doubtless traumatised Gilchrist resigned, as with the forced exchange of Queens Black's extra Rook is decisive. Of course White had thought he was mating in two by 32...Qxf6 33. Qxf6 34.Qd6 — not realising that with his own King on f1, Black's capture on f6 is with check. However often I play over this game, I can't watch its grisly denouement without a shudder. There but for the grace of God . . .
One of the most charming books by an amateur, The Quiet Game, contains a wonderful selection of blunders (wonderful for everyone, that is, except for the perpetrators). The author, the late John Montgomerie, who represented Scotland in the 1937 Stockholm Chess Olympiad, explains better than most what it actually feels like at the moment the blunderer realises what he has missed: "All the symptoms described by the novelist as indicating shock can be experienced at such a moment: that sinking feeling in the stomach, a shiver down the spine, gooseflesh, blushing, deathly pallor: I have experienced them all!"
As a connoisseur of such agonies, Montgomerie considers that the most painful is one which causes the perpetrator to lose a game he has been playing brilliantly up to that moment — and when it also means he has thrown away not just that single game, but a championship he was about to seize.
He gives as example the following game between J. Gilchrist and D. MacIsaac, in the final round of the 1928 West of Scotland Championship, when both players shared the lead: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.c4 (coincidentally Gilchrist plays exactly the same line as Carlsen did against Anand's Sicilian defence in their fateful 6th match game) Qc7 6.Nc3 Nf6 7.Be2 Bb4 8.0-0 (a perfectly sound pawn sacrifice) Bxc3 9.bxc3 Nxe4 10.Bd3 Nf6 (10...Nc5 was better, but not 10...Nxc3 11. Qc2 trapping the greedy Knight) 11.Bg5 d6 12.Re1 Nbd7 13.Nf5 Kf8 14.Ng3 Ne5 15.Rxe5 (This, however, is unsound: but Black has to be very careful) dxe5 16.Bxf6 gxf6 17.Qh5 e4 (Understandably Black tries to bring his Queen into the defence. Yet 17...h6 was much better, taking a vital square from White's own Queen) 18.Qh6+ Ke7 19.Nxe4 Qe5 20.f4 Qf5 21.Nf2 Qc5 22.Kf1 (Neatly unpinning; unfortunately for White, it seems he later forgets his King is no longer on the standard square g1) f5 23.Qg5+ Kd6 24.Rd1 Kc7 25.Ne4 Qf8 26.c5 fxe4 (Fatal greed, or it should have been: after 26...Bd7 Black would have excellent chances to defend) 27.Qe5+ Kd8 28.Bb5+ Ke7 29. Qd6+ Kf6 30.Qe5+ Ke7 31.f5 (After repeating the position Gilchrist finds the winning move. As Montgomerie comments: "White is poised for victory and the championship. If 31...axb5 32.f6+ Ke8 33.Qc7 forces mate".) 31...Qh6 (Now 32.Qxh8 Qf4+ 33.Kg1 exf5 34.Qd8+ Ke6 35.Rd6+ Ke5 36.Qf6 is checkmate. But instead....) 32. f6+??? Qxf6 + and a doubtless traumatised Gilchrist resigned, as with the forced exchange of Queens Black's extra Rook is decisive. Of course White had thought he was mating in two by 32...Qxf6 33. Qxf6 34.Qd6 — not realising that with his own King on f1, Black's capture on f6 is with check. However often I play over this game, I can't watch its grisly denouement without a shudder. There but for the grace of God . . .
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