Chess
The First Law of Swindling states that a player's propensity to blunder in a winning position is proportional to the number of paths he can choose to victory. In other words, the best way to save a lost position is to confuse your opponent by offering him a choice of winning paths.
Jan Timman appreciates this, as he demonstrated in a fine escape against John van der Sterren at the Dutch championships. In the diagram position, Timman (Black) faced the threat of Nxe8. White also has good chances of a mating attack with Bh6 and/or Nd5 and Nf6+. So Timman played 1...Re4!
White can now win with 2.Nd5 or (thanks to Re4 taking away a square from Black's queen) with 2.Rc1 Qb3 3.Rc3 Qa4 4.Bb5. Instead he chose the third way: 2.Bd3, allowing 2...Qxd1+! 3.Qxd1 Rxd6 4.h3 Rxd3! 5.Qxd3 Re1+ 6.Qf1 Rxf1+ 7.Kxf1 with a draw agreed two moves later.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies