Patience! Don’t Commit to the First Good One You See

The same goes for chess moves.

There is an old chess adage, ‘If you see a good move, don’t play it. Look around. There may be a better one!”

Black to move and win.

It is the 2000 U.S. Championship and we have the Gregory Serper – Alex Shabalov match up.

I think most of our readers see that if Black plays …..Nc2, he improves to being two pawn down if White plays the expected Qd2, then .....Nxe1, and White plays Qxe1.

But I think Mr. Shabalov was not interested in an end game being two pawns down with no center control and a nearly trapped rook when he conceived of this position.

I’m just sayin’.

If you get stuck or want verification, email Mike at lcchess @ yahoo dot com for the solution.