I hate chess...

I hate chess.

Well, not exactly. Not yet. But, almost. Some days...

Take a look a the following position that arose in a recent game of mine on FICS.That's me with the white pieces, stumbling around with what should have been an attack. Reminds you a bit of that comment by Harry Bird, no?

Place the contents of the chess box in a hat, shake them up vigorously, pour them on the board from a height of two feet -- and you get the style of Steinitz.

What a mess! Chess masters who say that they talk to their chess pieces, or that their pieces talk to them: what would they be hearing now??

17.Bxe6

Light-squared White Bishop: I suppose you're all wondering why I called you together today...

Dark-squared Black Bishop: Excuse me, I think that there's something you left off of the agenda...

17...Bxd6

You see, things like this shouldn't happen.

Stumble-bum players like me shouldn't knowingly sacrifice their Queens like this.

It's just not natural.

18.Bxf7+ Kh6 19.Nxd6 g6

You have no idea how much better I felt when I learned that Black's last move is not best. If he had played 19...Qe5 instead, he could have returned the Queen with 20.Ne6+ Qxf4 21.Nxf4; or he could have tried 19...Qf6 20.Nge4+ g5 21.Nxf6.

In both cases, though, White would have still been better. The problem is, my Queen sac was correct.

20.Nxf5+ gxf5

Tossing in the towel. He could have delayed the mate with 20...Kh5 21.h3 Ne5 22.Ng7+Kh6 23.N5e6+ g5 24.Bxg5 checkmate.

21.Ne6 checkmate

I'm glad I got that out of my system.