Mind freak

I must stop reading The Chess Mind; it's affecting my regular mind.

Take a look at the first diagram. Abrahams thinks that Black has just gone wrong by playing 1...Rb2. To demonstrate this he gives the following variation: 2.Ng5 (with the threat of e5-e6) 2...h6 3.Nxf7 Kxf7 4.Bxh6 gxh6 5.Rxd3 exd3 6.Qxh6 “with an attack.”

The resulting position is shown in the second diagram. Let's try to find a defence to this “attack.” It doesn't seem too difficult, since the only real threat is 7.e6+. Let's make Black play 6...Re6. This hits the queen, so White has no time for a rook lift. He must work with checks: 7.Qh7+ (or 7.Qh5+ Ke7 8.Qh7+, which comes to the same thing) 7...Ke8. Now there are two main variations:

A) 8.Qxd3 Rxa2 9.f4 Qh4
Hitting the rook and threatening ...Qf2+.
10.Rf1 Rb6.
Black will now double rooks on the seventh rank, and it is all over for White.

B) 8.f4 d2 9.Rd1 Qd7 Threatening to exchange queens. Let's see: two extra pieces, a passed pawn on the seventh rank. Why are we even looking at this? White is totally lost.

If I have learned anything from reading Abrahams, it is this: whenever he thinks someone has an attack, they probably don't have an attack.

It's time to put away The Chess Mind and take out my copy of Boris Gelfand's game collection.