Black threatens 23... Qxb3 24.axb3 Rc2 followed by Ra2.

And yet white is able to dismantle this three piece chain with just two pieces of his own.

Who would have thought that the Rc8 would be overworked as it needs to defend both the Ra8 and the Qc2?

And that white would achieve this wizardry by placing a rook on a square where it is totally undefended?

It seems to make a mockery of all those wise sayings about chess and war. In this POTD, white attacks the black position where it is strongest (the Rc8), not where it is weakest. Rc8 is after all the only black piece which is defended twice.

And white does this by putting a piece en prise.

In a way, the black king is defended twice ^^

And a king can only be protected by blocking an attack, not by other pieces being able to recapture if the king is taken. So we could argue that the Rc8 is no protection at all to a rook check on d8!

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...is definate human blunderland. Black played 22..Qc2.

The last thing a player suspects is that his a8 Rook is a potential target so the warning bells are silent. 'Check all Checks.'

On a previous page Ray states he had the whole game prepared and the critical position was sitting on his pocket set in his hotel room.

Brilliant, the good old golden days when humans looked for plausible OTB blunders instead of running the games through a box. A box won't even show the user this wee pitfall especially if it is looking at the positon from 4-5 moves previous, yet there is it and a very good human player fell into it.

A similar setting and finish.

John Curtis - Arinbjorn Gudmundsson, Australian Championship 1971.

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Black has just captured a pawn on c2 by playing 21...Qc5xc2.

White played....? 1-0.

We had just played
15.-,Nb6xd5
16.Be2-c4
and had reached the following position:

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What is black to do? The knight is under fire, and if it moves there's a pawn to grab on f7. On 16.-,Be6, White can play 17.Ne4, and Black has something to wonder about. But what else? Maybe 16.-,Be6 is still the best move?

This is luck in chess: complications that fills up the opponents mind, so he overlooks a simple alternative.

While he was thinking I discovered it. He can't play that move! To my unspeakable joy it still came, after several minutes of thinking:

16.-,Be6??

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White plays
21.Kf1
He is not happy with this move, as it puts his king on a White square, and 21.-,Dd7 is crushing.

So why not just play 21.Kg1 instead? Now 21.-,Qd7 22.Qf2,Qh3 wins as it is White to move, not Black as in the game, where Fischer had prepared something pretty.

I don't think this is a cunning way to create in advance the <trap> with tactics which you can find in any chess book , and hope that your opponent take a <bite>.

If Tarjan was as bold as Gelfand in the game Caruana vs Gelfand, Baku 2014,who sacr. the exchange and draw the game being the rook less, he would play 19...Rxa2,and your <home preparation> will be destroyed.

IMHO, the author of the funniest post ever on this site: