Lessons From Mariánské Lázně

DAVID Bronstein warned in his book on the 1953 Zurich candidates' tournament that "to lose one's objectivity is almost invariably to lose the game as well."

Unfortunately, the reality at club level is that players tend to view positions with the help of either a glass-half-full or a glass-half-empty.

This was starkly illustrated in my round-one game, where I had white against Radek Zálešák (1611).

The following position was reached after I played 37.Ne6-g5!

I gave the move an exclamation mark because it is far from obvious, but is the best  available

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Nevertheless it does not change the fact that Black's exchange is worth far more than White's two extra pawns, one of which is about to fall.

Naturally my opponent avoided 37...Kxg5?? 38.Qf4#, and instead played the winning 37...Qc7+, when it is easy to see the only reply to keep the game going is Kh4, after which Black has ...Rxe7.

However, after playing ...Qc7+, my opponent offered a draw - definitely a case of glass-half-empty thinking.

It should have been obvious to me that I had to take the draw as the next two moves are forced, after which White has only one pawn for the exchange, and, with the seventh-rank pawn gone, Black's pieces are well-placed to protect the black king.

Instead, in a clear case of glass-half-full thinking by me, the game continued 38.Kh4 Rxe7, and now I could find nothing better than 39.Ne4+, planning to meet 39...Kg7 with 40.Nd6, after which at least the knight has an outpost.

But White has several moves that maintain the win, including 40...h6 and 40...Re5.

Instead my opponent apparently went into glass-half-empty mode again and played 39...Rxe4??, after which the game concluded 40.Qxe4 g5+ 41.Kh5 Qf7+ 42.Kh6 Qf8+ 43.Kh5 Qf7+ ½–½

I write "apparently went into glass-half-empty mode" because it is possible he played ...Rxe4, not out of undue pessimism, but as a result of a miscalculation, thinking ...g5+ would be followed by mate.

Either way, it leads to the same LESSON: if you do not keep a clear head, and instead analyse with your personality to the fore, rather than objectively, you risk going horribly wrong.