Archive for the ‘Moves I could never play’ Category

Moves I could never play 41

Posted in Moves I could never play on July 30, 2026| Leave a Comment »

I’ve always been an admirer of Smyslov, mostly for his positional and endgame play. Still to this day I have never found anyone who can handle IQP positions as well as he could. The game below, however, shows his attacking flair and involves a queen sac: his opponent starts going wrong and it’s not too long before Smyslov brings victory home. Unsurprisingly, queen sacs are well out of my league.

White plays 29. Rxf5 here.

You can find the game here: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1126235

With regards to Smyslov’s handling of the IQP, does it get any better than this -surely not: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067631

M J M

Read Full Post »

Moves I could never play 40

Posted in Moves I could never play on July 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Another block-busting move by Vishy that is too above my level to play. I am quite good at leaving a queen en prise and have a long history of doing so but this usually results in a loss and not a win, like what is shown below.

Here Vishy plays 26. …Rxc4!

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1250407

M J M

Read Full Post »

Moves I could never play 39

Posted in Moves I could never play on July 20, 2026| Leave a Comment »

I’ve never been the world champion and probably never sacced a rook either, so the move played below is off limits to me. When you are sacrificing that much material you have to be sure it’s going to work or you are busted. GM Anand is not here and it’s not long before his opponent’s position collapses completely.

Here Vishy plays 22, Rxe6.

You can find the game here: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1266094

M J M

Read Full Post »

Moves I could never play 38

Posted in Moves I could never play on July 16, 2026| Leave a Comment »

GM Mariotti, Italy’s first GM, played in the Beds. league for the 1970-71 season, hence the reason I take an interest in his games. I recently learnt that he liked to play the Dutch defence, Stonewall variation, and sometimes played it very well. The position below is from such a game and contains a move I could not play. With two pieces en prise I would be more interested in saving them than playing what is played below.

Here GM Mariotti plays 32. …f4

Here is the game: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1093267

M J M

Read Full Post »

Moves I could never play 37

Posted in Moves I could never play on April 26, 2026| Leave a Comment »

FM Gary Kenworthy has been one of the strongest players in the Bedfordshire league for decades. In his youth, many of his games exuded great strength as a player. The game included here is too tactical for me -gambit chess! Gary, rated over 2300, has just played 10. Qh5.

Too hard to calculate for me which means too much courage would be required to play it. I was taught by GM Schebler to play the Scotch 4 knights once but never played the Belgrade Gambit, which is what is played here. Very sharp. Could you play 10. Qh5? The game can be found below.

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2392278

M J M

Read Full Post »

Moves I could never play 36

Posted in Moves I could never play on April 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Here’s a game from two senior, well-read figures from the Soviet chess scene. As I am sure you know, Kotov’s most famed publication is Think like a Grandmaster. This game should be called Blink like a Grandmaster. I am sure he did plenty of that when the queen sac came in! I can’t sac anything, let alone queens. In this game, yes there are highly favourable conditions surrounding it but it still requires deep calculation above my level to jusify as white plays another 20 moves before being totally lost. I could not play 30. … Qxh3+ here, could you?

I found this game here: https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess/mfm6170.htm

Here is the full game: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1084375

M J M

Read Full Post »

Moves I could never play 35

Posted in Moves I could never play on April 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Before Carlsen came along, my favourite player was Karpov. Unlike him, I am not able to put my opponent in zugwang very often, if ever, being a BM like Diggle. In the following game, Karpov plays the sort of move only he could and I most certainly could not as it doesn’t seem to do anything to me. Here Karpov plays 24. Ba7.

Could you play 24. Ba7 here?

How deep do you have to go to see that is worth playing? Let’s look at the final position of the game.

Black is almost in zugwang here. Squeeze play like the title suggests. Way above my level. Note that Karpov was not world champion yet when this was played. The game can be found here: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067846

M J M

Read Full Post »

Moves I could never play 34

Posted in Moves I could never play on January 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Courtesy of fb, this appeared today.

It’s safe to assume that if, unassisted, I could not see a move in a study, I couldn’t find it OTB also.

M J M

Read Full Post »

Moves I could never play 33

Posted in Life beyond the chess board, Moves I could never play on January 5, 2026| Leave a Comment »

From fb.

Later that decade…

M J M

Read Full Post »

Moves I could never play 32

Posted in Moves I could never play on December 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1281045

M J M

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »