Clangers

Russell Sherwood  Sunday, September 18, 2022

It's happened again. I've been nursing a small advantage from the opening. It's settled at around + 0.7, and I'm reconciling myself to the fact that a draw seems the likeliest outcome. I receive my opponent's move and set up the current position. The evaluation is now -8.

My first reaction is disbelief. Surely this has to be a mistake. I check the position, replay the game but am forced to accept the changed reality. How can this happen? I didn't rush my last move. I gave the engine time and entered its choice of move. The explanation can only be that the position I presented for my engine to analyse was incorrect.

I feel sick in the pit of my stomach. My disbelief turns to self-recrimination. My feelings are like players' immediate reactions to over the board reverses. I saw Ian Nepomniachtchi interviewed recently after failing to beat Hans Niemann from a promising position. He was asked why he had not captured a pawn. "Because I am a moron" declared Ian with force and feeling.

Clangers should not occur in correspondence chess. I'm now currently playing two games in which I have committed single move losing blunders.  It's not just me who does this. I've also been the beneficiary. My win in the USA Friendly was courtesy of a dropped piece, and I'm sitting on an imminent win in which a strong opponent has gifted me a rook.

Clangers may even out over time, but right now the last cut is the deepest. These seem harder to bear in team events. Apologies to colleagues in the current Horst Ritter team event. 

Phil