Isn't Life Tricky?

A few days ago, my friend bitterly told me about her friend who began to change. And after a while, the story actually reminded me of one endgame position study which very aptly describes my friend's situation. It even surprised myself because I'm actually not someone who likes to connect life's issue with our beloved sport, chess.


The endgame position that I'm happy to show here is taken from the book "Dvoretsky Endgame Manual", one of the must-read endgame books for every chess player. Enjoy! :)


Svacina - Muller, Wien 1941 
 
Black cannot capitalize on the active position of his king. He thought up an amusing psychological trap: retreating his king instead.


1...¢c4 [1...g4 2.¢e1 ¢c2 3.¢e2=; 1...f4 2.gxf4 gxf4 3.exf4=] 2.¢c2 ¢b5 Black attempts to trap opponent and he succeeded! 3.¢b3 


3... ¢c6 4.¢b4 ¢d6 5.¢b5 ¢d7 6.¢c5 ¢e6 7.¢c6?



And it worked! White, having no idea what his opponent was up to, naively marched his king deep into enemy territory - no doubt, he was already expecting to win. But now, Black plays the pawn breakthrough. 7...g4! [7...h4 8.gxh4 gxh4 9.¢c5 f4 10.exf4 ¢f5 11.¢xd5 ¢xf4 12.¢c5 e3 ( 12...h3? 13.gxh3 ¢f3 14.d5 ¢xf2 15.d6 e3 16.d7 e2 17.d8£ e1£ 18.£h4++-) 13.fxe3+ ¢xe3! 14.d5 ¢f2 15.d6 ¢xg2 16.d7 h3 17.d8£ h2= Minev] 8.¢c5 f4! 9.exf4 [9.gxf4 h4 … h3–+; 9.¢c6 h4 10.gxh4 g3–+]


9...h4! 10.gxh4 g3 11.fxg3 e3 0–1

Not only life, our opponents are (almost) always tricky. Beware!





  

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