Lessons From Torquay 5

I WAS on top for most of my round-five game in the Riviera afternoon open at Torquay, without ever gaining a material advantage.

Here I thought the time had come to deliver the coup de grâce

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My candidate moves included 40.Nxc6!, which Stockfish16 and Komodo14.1 agree is best.

But I did not go into the ramifications of thst move very deeply as I thought 40.Nab7? was also very strong, and simpler to calculate.

Since 40...Bxb7? lets White trap the black queen, I thought Black more-or-less had to choose between 40...Rd7? and 40...Ra8?, both of which also lose.

I did not seriously consider Black capturing on b7 with a rook, or at least I thought that such a capture was not good. I knew it was possible, but somehow I thought it lost the exchange.

But naturally that is what my opponent played, and I was lucky the game was still drawn.
LESSON: when you have a winning move, or at least a move that you believe wins, it is almost always worth spending extra time to double and even triple check that you are right. If you are indeed right, the extra time will not take away the win (unless you are desperately short of time). But if you are wrong,  the extra checking should uncover the flaw(s) in your reasoning.