Under Pressure.....

Well, when you're rushed, you make mistakes. As in life, as in chess. Here (see Diagram One), as black, I am facing a pretty tight endgame. The advanced pawn and the guarding rook have been driving me nuts for most of the game, and I eagerly looking for away of doing away with one or both of them. But how... if at all?






Well, unfortunately, my thoughts on this consumed up all my playable time, and with less than one second left (no exageration!) I chose the dubious 1... Rxc7?. There are several much more playable moves, but the key is to focus on why this move is such a loser. What I failed to notice is that minus, the c7 white pawn, the e4 black pawn and the two rooks, this is an easy win for white. The white king, can just waltz over to the king-side and snatch up black's remaining pawns. (See Diagram Two). The black king, forced to c7 to take the white rook, simply can't get back in time.

Now believe it or not, I actually drew this game. A tit for tat.... white making a horrible endgame move. I got very lucky. After my key mistake, this was clearly white's game to win.