Lessons From Prague 3

IN round three I had a golden opportunity with white to beat a player rated almost 300 elo higher.

White to play and win

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White is a pawn up and has attacking chances against the black king.

Accordingly I played 26.Qd4? I knew Black could meet this with 26...Rf7, but I reasoned an exchange of rooks would not harm my position.

Stockfish15.1 and Komodo14.1 reckon this is good enough for a win, but later positional inaccuracies meant the game was drawn.

Instead I could have won on the spot with 26.g4, after which the black queen has only one move that does not leave it en prise, namely 26...Qb1+.

But then comes 27.Rc1, and if 27...Qxb3 then 28.Qd4 leads to mate, eg 28...Rf7 29.Rxf7 Kxf7 30.Qf6+ Kg8 31.Bh6 etc.

Admittedly 26.g4 is slightly counterintuitive at first sight as White moves a pawn in front of the king and weakens the white position on the f file, but these factors are trivial when compared with the benefits of the move.

LESSON: when an enemy piece, especially a major one, is short of squares, be extra sure to look at ways of hitting it.