Saturday, November 14, 2009

Run that by me again

Sometimes you're just casually reading a chess book, without looking at a chessboard, when you notice something....

Exhibit A:

"Sometimes Black attempts to neutralize the active bishop by means of 6...Be6 and, it must be said, he has been fairly successful:

...
7. Nd5 Bxd5 8. exd5 h6! (after the weaker 8...Nd4 9. Nxd4 Bxd4 10. c3 Bb6 11. Bb5+ Kf8 12. Qf3 h6 13. Bd2 White's chances are preferable, Womacka-Schone, Germany 1992) 9. Bxf6 Qxf6 10. c3 O-O with equal chances."

Eduard Gufeld & Oleg Stetsko, The Giuoco Piano, Batsford, 1996, p. 23.
....and you wonder what on Earth they think they're on about....

Exhibit B:

"12. e5?! is imprecise due to 12...b4! 13. exf6 bxc3 14. fxe7 cxd2+ 15. Nxd2 Qxe7 and the compensation for the pawn is non-existent, since White has as many weaknesses as Black, Dreev-T. Petrosian, Moscow 2006."

Reinaldo Vera, Meran Semi-Slav, Gambit, 2007, p. 75.
....and, whether, perhaps, it was written casually, without looking at a chessboard.

3 comments:

Tom Chivers said...

Very good. Exhibit B took me a lot longer to spot.

Anonymous said...

Is the point that he isn't a pawn down?

Richard

ejh said...

Richard - yes, and apologies for missing your question at the time!