fredthebear: One of the worst habits in chess is looking for moves randomly. It's important to follow some sort of checklist faithfully; in the process one will notice other possibilities that otherwise would not be considered. Too often, we just play the first or second move that pops into our heads -- too many natural reactions without giving full consideration to the entire army.It has been said that Korchnoi spent 30 minutes everyday studying tactics. He obviously did not consider all possible Checks & Captures in the position above. One must follow their checklist faithfully when studying tactics to form and habituate the same search process over and over and over again.
A few tips that could apply to the above position at the critical moment:
- Attack something that you already attack again; attack it a second and third time to outnumber the opponent's defenders.
- Seize open lines for long range pieces and connect batteries along it.
- Get the Queen in close! Give her support.
- When you see a good move -- WAIT! Put it in your cart and keep on shopping around. You can always go back and play the good move later if you don't find something even better.
- Compare three different moves by three different pieces at three different targets. (Actually one should consider a move in every direction by each and every unit on board, but this is only practical during long time controls.) Following the concept of three x three will at least get one to comparison shop.
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Of course, Korchnoi was thinking strategically. White's bishop pair and extra pawn would win the endgame if he could manage to exchange queens to simplify matters. VK had to be pleased at the time to play 30.QxQf5? It gave him a winning position, strategically.
Suetin missed it too, as 29...Qf5?? is an awful blunder.
It seems possible that 18.Bg3 was actually played instead of 18.Bc3. Then the queen moves for both sides make a bit more sense.
Kibitzing
