Jaws Of Victory

A while back, I said that one of my fellow club players had a habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. I guess we all have those days, as evidenced by Van Wely-Carlsen in Round 10 of Wijk aan Zee.

I came home Thursday night after my fifth loss in six games. What was really annoying was when Fritz showed me how many wins I missed. I've given away most of the challenge of the tactical quiz, but here are six of the positions that I had with Black to move. In the annotated game below, I estimate how strong a player would have to be to see the best line.

16.Black to play and gain the advantage

24.Black to play. Can he play axb5?

25.Black to play and win

28.Black to play and win

34.Black to play. Can he play g6?

37.Black to play. Where should the rook go?

I have either chess blindness or chess myopia. In a lot of variations, I'm truncating the analysis due to fear of a certain move without seeing that I have resources to refute it. I think I need to study Kasparov's dynamism and of course, work on my calculations.

So I snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. At least I put myself in a position to win this time and I was brave enough to play the gambit line.