I'd like to remind my readers: please contribute your games! Your game doesn't have to be a masterpiece, and you don't have to be a strong player. But you do have to send it to me. I can't use it if I don't have it! Correction This month I take a vacation from annotating contributors' games and annotate some of my own. I'll start by trying to fix up some lazy analysis in my November 1993 column. Diagram 1: 4b3 n4kp1 1n1p4 2pPp1K1 p1P1P3 P2B2P1 1N1B4 8 Leverett-Rea Ohio Chess Congress, September 1993 Position after 40 Kg5 I wrote, "From this square White's king controls the game. White is easily winning now." But let's see just how "easy" it was. From the diagram the game went: 40 ... Bd7 41 Ba5 Nac8 41 ... Nbc8 is worse: 42 Bc7 ties up two knights for the price of one bishop. 42 Bf1 Na8 43 Nd1 Ne7 44 Ne3 Nc8 45 Be2 Nab6 Diagram 2: 2n5 3b1kp 1n1p4 B1pPp1K1 p1P1P3 P3N1P1 4B3 Position after 45 ... Nab6 So far, not much action--just regrouping. But now I played a tactically critical move: 46 Nf5 g6! 47 Nh4 There's no turning back. 47 Ne3 Kg7 gives Black a solid defense. 47 ... Bh3! 48 Bd3 Nd7 49 Nxg6 Nf6? Black misses a shot! White now was able to play 50 Nh4, keeping the bishop out of g2, and thereby keeping the counterplay to a manageable level. But as William Wright pointed out in the Ohio Chess Bulletin, 49 ... Bg2! embarrasses White. The threat of ... Nf6 winning the e-pawn is strong. Wright suggests the following variation: 50 Nh4 Bh1 51 Bd8 Ke8 52 Bc7 Kf7 53 Nf5 Nf6 54 Nxd6+ Nxd6 55 Bxd6 Nxe4+ 56 Bxe4 Bxe4 57 Bxc5 Bd3, with a draw. White could also try snatching the a-pawn, for instance by 50 Nh4 Bh1 51 Bc7 Nf6 52 Bc2. There may still be winning chances in this line: 52 ... Nxe4+ 53 Kg4 Nd2? 54 Bf5! But the variations are uncountable. What happened to White's "easy" win? It's possible that there is an improvement on the 48th move (instead of 48 Bd3). In the November article I mentioned that 48 g4? is refuted by 48 ... Nd7 49 Nf3 Bg2!, and the bishop is out of reach. But 48 Nf3 might be better: 48 ... Bg2 49 Nd2, and now 49 ... Nd7 50 Bg4 and 49 ... Bh3 50 g4 both allow White to trap Black's bishop. Or 48 ... Nd7 49 Kh4 Bg2 50 Ng5+! (better than 50 Nd2 Nf6 51 Bd3 Ne7! with counterplay) and again Black will soon run out of cheap threats. Black would have to play 48 ... Bd7, but then 49 Kh6 may give White the opening he is looking for. Still clearer is (from Diagram 2): 46 g4! This keeps Black securely bottled up, while holding 47 Nf5 in reserve. If 46 ... g6 47 Kh6 is really overwhelming. Black has no defense to the plan of g4-g5, Kh7, and Nf5 and/or Bh5. It is likely that White was, indeed, winning with best play from Diagram 1. But it couldn't have been an easy win, at least not for me, or I wouldn't have bungled it at moves 46 and 48. When a commentator tells you about an "easy" endgame, don't take his word for it!Here is a game that I considered a real feather in my cap. My opponent, IM Ed Formanek, is a habitual prizewinner at tournaments in Pennsylvania and the nearby states. Oddly, we have only played five tournament games, the first of which was in 1979. White: Ed Formanek Black: Bruce Leverett Pittsburgh Open, Round 4 June 1993 1 d4 d5 2 c4 dxc4 3 e3 A little finesse. White delays Nf3 until Black can no longer play ... Bg4. Black can respond with 3 ... e5, which is not bad, but it is not the instant equalizer it was once thought to be. 3 ... Nf6 4 Bxc4 e6 5 Nf3 c5 6 O-O a6 7 Qe2 b5 8 Bb3 Bb7 9 a4 It's logical to attack Black's far-extended pawns. The principal alternative at this point is attack in the center by 9 Rd1 and 10 Nc3. 9 ... Nbd7 10 axb5 axb5 11 Rxa8 Qxa8 12 Na3 12 Qxb5 Bxf3 13 gxf3 Qxf3 gives White no advantage. 12 ... b4 13 Nc4? Black has a nice blockade on e4. By failing to challenge it, White loses the initiative of the first move and gets into a cramped, awkward position. Instead, 13 Nb5! creates tactical threats and offers some hope of breaking the bind. After the game I looked up the opening variation. The first thing I found, in both MCO-13 and BCO-2, was the game Miles-Seirawan, Dubai Olympiad 1986, which went 13 Nb5 Bxf3 14 gxf3 Qb8 15 Bd2, draw. *** Kids, don't try this at home! *** Seirawan's 13th is a well-known error. Miles could have established a comfortable advantage with 15 e4. Playing a sluggish move and promptly agreeing to a draw at move 15 are not characteristic of a healthy Grandmaster playing for a win. It is remarkable that this little game should have been considered theoretically significant. An older monograph quoted the following highly tactical continuation: 13 Nb5 Qa5 14 e4! Be7 (both 14 ... Bxe4 and 14 ... Nxe4 are met by 15 Ng5, with strong threats) 15 d5 (15 e5 is also important) 15 ... exd5 16 Bxd5 Nxd5 17 exd5 O-O! 18 Qxe7 Qxb5 19 Rd1 Nf6 with approximate equality, Florian-Pilnik, Helsinki Olympiad 1952. This is only a sample of the sort of tactics that White should look for with 13 Nb5. 13 ... Be7 14 Rd1 If White had realized the seriousness of his predicament, he might have played 14 Bc2 and 15 Re1, threatening 16 e4. Black can meet the threat by ... Ne4 or ... Be4 or ... cxd4, but in every case White gets some relief from the vicious pin on the long diagonal. He would then have had good chances to equalize. 14 ... O-O 15 Ne1 Out of the frying pan, into the fire. 15 ... Qa6 16 f3 Rc8 17 Kf2 Nb6 In the post-mortem, Formanek suggested 17 ... Bc6! with the threat of 18 ... Bb5. This is the logical way of increasing the pressure. It would probably have brought about the collapse of White's defense, which must be considered suspect after the last three highly artificial moves. I didn't see 17 ... Bc6, and I had run out of non-committal developing moves, so I decided to exchange White's best-placed piece. 18 dxc5 Rxc5 19 Nxb6 Qxb6 20 Nd3? Either 20 Bc4 or 20 Qd3 was answered by 20 ... Qc7. But 20 Qd2 or 20 Kg1 would have avoided getting deeper into trouble. 20 ... Ba6 21 Qe1? Even at this point, 21 Kg1 is possible, and I don't see anything decisive for Black. Diagram: 6k1 4bppp bq2pn2 2r5 1p6 1B1NPP2 1P3KPP 2BRQ3 21 ... Bxd3 22 Rxd3 Qc7 23 Bd2 Qxh2 24 Rd4 Rg5 25 Qg1 Qb8 Black will try to get more concessions, by taking advantage of White's exposed king, before entering the endgame. After 25 ... Qxg1+ 26 Kxg1 there would be many technical obstacles, because Black's pieces would be tied down to the defense of the b-pawn. 26 Kf1 Ra5 27 Ke2 Nd5 The threat is 28 ... Bf6, and 28 e4 loses to 28 ... Bc5 29 exd5 e5. White elects to trade the bishop, but without that piece the starch goes out of his defense. I used most of my remaining time finding this move. The time control was at move 40. 28 Bxd5 exd5 29 Kf2 Bc5 30 Rh4 Of course not 30 Rxd5? Bxe3+. 30 ... Ra6 31 Qb1 Rg6 32 Rh3 d4 33 Qd3 dxe3+ 34 Bxe3 Bxe3+ 35 Qxe3 h6 36 Qc5 Qf4 37 Qe3?? Both players were in severe time pressure by now. That's the explanation for this incredible pair of blunders. Black could now win the queen with 37 ... Rxg2+, but instead ... 37 ... Qxe3+?? 38 Kxe3 Rxg2 White's flag fell.