Lessons From Bischofsgrün V

MY round-five game, in which I was Black against Rolf Zens (1884), featured an instructive moment as the pressure built on my opponent's position.

I have just played 20...h7-h6

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The move stops Ng5, and makes ...e4 a major threat.

Indeed, if it were Black to move in the diagram, Stockfish18 and Dragon1 reckon 21...e4 would give Black an advantage worth almost a minor piece, one of the points being that not only does the move attack the white knight, it threatens ...exd3 with ...Bxc4 to come.

Probably best is 21.Rac1, reinforcing c4, although the 3ngines agree Black is positionally winning.

The game saw 21.Ng1, which is not the most ridiculous move on the board as, although the knight is out of play on the back rank, White now has a pawn and three pieces covering the e4 square.

But the move did not achieve what was presumably its primary purpose (we did not have a postmortem), as I played 21...e4! anyway.

LESSON: when making a retrograde move that you feel is the only way to stop an opponent's dangerous continuation, you must be certain the move actually achieves its purpose.