Jim West On Chess: Analysis of O'Connor

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Analysis of O'Connor - West

At Contre Gambit Philidor, Frederic Fournier analyzes my recent game as Black against Michael O'Connor.

From the diagram, White blundered his queen by 39.Kf7. But even the better move 39.Ke7 would have lost after 39...Qg7+ 40.Kd8 Qxc7+ 41.Kxc7 Nxd1 42.Kxb6 Nb2 43.a5 Nc4+ 44.Kb5 Nxa5 45.Kxa5 Kxh5 46.Kb4 Kg4 47.Kc4 Kg3 48.Kd4 h5 49.Ke4 Kxg2 50.Kf4 h4 51.Kg4 h3.

"My study of chess was accompanied by a strong attraction to music, and it was probably thanks to this that from childhood I became accustomed to thinking of chess as an art, and have never regarded it as anything else, for all the science and sport involved in it. And, moreover, an art which in some ways is closer to music than it is customary to think. Perhaps chess and music are drawn together by laws of harmony and beauty which are difficult to formulate and difficult to grasp, or perhaps by something else." - Vasily Smyslov