Friday, November 16, 2012

Steve Stoyko's Smashing Wins

Shumowitz - Stoyko
Black to play and win.
I have annotated two nice attacking games from FM Steve Stoyko, both of which end with smashing breakthroughs to get the king.  When Steve showed me them, he pointed to the places where his opponent's play "was not in keeping with the spirit of chess." He told me, in all good humor, that when he sees such moves he says to himself "you have sinned against chess." And -- as a true "defender of the faith" -- he must administer "the punishment of the just upon the wicked!" I hope not to be on the receiving end of such punishment myself anytime soon!  Steve is doing well, by the way, and expects to make it to the club some time soon -- maybe for my lecture on November 29 (more on that in future posts).

No comments: