Stunning combination - a treasure!

I have often noticed that I am a very humble person.

It is not as if I am bragging about something that most of the fraternity that exist in my imagination would give their life for but seriously.

The fact is I am so because there are two sides that war away to nutty glory over me (Here! I am not bragging.) because when the one faction says "Give him some space", the other cramps me up with creeps; when the one says, he is so 'humble', the other brings out something in me to show I am arrogant; when the one says...you get the picture, right?

No matter what, the two factions are always there and here I am, with loads and loads of talent (at times, to the level of genius), commitment, willingness to put in hard work, tonnes of patience and humility, and not in the cover of Life or at the Oscars or the Emmy because these two factions insist on being the 'perfect' mother - father combination to me that even my real parents could not have been.

The fact is because of these two factions constantly at me for as long as I can remember, I have developed some kind of a defence mechanism within me that keeps failing the one or the other and so, I decided to carefully monitor where all I made mistakes (Btw, don't get carried away as one nutcase did because I don't usually make mistakes, in fact, hardly, or rather, I don't make mistakes at all. As I said, I am a humble person and such proclamations about myself are rare so don't think I am bragging again) when playing Chess and why.

Finally, I think I have made the grade as per myself. For, here I was sensing that this opponent on Facebook Chess that had bet 10K would definitely have something up her sleeve as they usually rig up a match with high stakes like disconnecting my internet or having a far higher rated player playing in her place.

But I surpassed myself because here I was playing one of the longest combinations that I can recall having devised.

Take a look at the boards that I managed to screen capture and see how the Bishop is placed at a6 to prevent me from castling on the King side. That is how long the combination was.

Board position 1

Board position 2

Board position 3

After board position 3, I played (let me annotate it as move 3) 3. Ng6 and black responded with ...Ra8-e8. And I played,

4. Qa4.

If 4...Nxf2 5. Nf-g5+ Kxg6 6. Qxc6+ Kf5 7. Qd7+ Re6 8. Qxe6++ !!

Board position 5

Board position 6

Board position 7

From here, evolves another combination that starts not with Nxe5+ but with (let me annotate it as move 8)

8. Qxa7+.
If 8. ...Ke8 9. Qb8+ Kd7 loses both rooks for Black with Nxe5+.

8. ...Kf6

If black had played 8. ...Ke6, 9. Nxf4+ black's Queen forked ! But this, losing the Queen, was probably the best way for Black.

9. Rxf4+ ! Rf5
10. Qe7 ++ !!

The depth of the combinations is what makes the game my best ever.

I am sure I can brag about this win even though it has not won me the world championships or any tournament prize.

I treasure it.

Vishy misses a clear advantage ? - Game 3 World Chess Championship 2013

It is very rare that a position of this nature comes forth in a World Championship game, especially when both the players are known to be sharp.

The position is after the 29th move of Game 3 of the ongoing World Chess Championships being played in Chennai between Vishwanathan Anand, the reigning world champion and Magnus Carlsen, the World no.1 and the challenger to the crown.

1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 g6 3. c4 dxc4 4. Qa4+ Nc6 5. Bg2 Bg7 6. Nc3 e5 7. Qxc4 Nge7 8. O-O O-O 9. d3 h6 10. Bd2 Nd4 11. Nxd4 exd4 12. Ne4 c6 13. Bb4 Be6 14. Qc1 Bd5 15. a4 b6 16. Bxe7 Qxe7 17. a5 Rab8 18. Re1 Rfc8 19. axb6 axb6 20. Qf4 Rd8 21. h4 Kh7 22. Nd2 Be5 23. Qg4 h5 24. Qh3 Be6 25. Qh1 c5 26. Ne4 Kg7 27. Ng5 b5 28. e3  (the adjacent image has analysis by Fritz, barring the first line, which is quite a bizarre suggestion all the other lines of variations shows ...dxe3 29. Rxe3 Bxb2) 

but Anand played 29...Bd4 !?

So, I thought of analyzing the ...Bxb2 line and the results were + all the way for Black even though a draw, forced by White through a Bishop sacrifice (resulting from a sharp-ish Ra6 line for White, annotated below), does look the most likely result, the way to the draw shows a lot of interesting plus-es for Black that might have led to a pressure situation for White! Maybe what Carlsen meant by "survived a scare"!

Here is the 29....Bxb2 line

At the press conference, Anand mentioned "Re1 and White had enough compensation" but not really as the below position shows after 30. Nxe6+ fxe6 31. Re1

31...e5 32. Rb1 Bd4 33. Re2 Qf7 34. Bc6 b4 35. Qe4  Rd6 36. Qf3 b3   -+

Below is a sharp-ish variation that Carlsen may have played with the above assumption that Carlsen would be only too eager to release his Queen from the 'h' square quickly and bring it into play.

30. Nxe6 fxe6 31. Ra6 e5 32. Be4 Rd6 33. Bc6! (allowing for Qe4 to come into play, freeing the Queen, and at the same time threatening the b5 pawn.