The saying came about from noisy New York City neighbors, a common experience of tenement living during the manufacturing boom of the late 19th and early 20th century.
Tenements were built similar in design with one bedroom under another. Thus, it was normal to hear a neighbor removing shoes and hearing them hit the floor above. As one shoe made a sound hitting the floor, the expectation for the other shoe to make a similar sound was created. At least that's where "they" say the expression came from.
That's what we were doing with the weather last week. Mid-week saw partly sunny skies and a high of 43 on Thursday, but the forecast was for rain in the afternoon followed by a dangerous winter storm in the form of an arctic blast and a bomb cyclone...a rapidly intensifying storm that can happen when atmospheric pressure drops significantly, which is usually the result of warm and cold air masses overlapping.
That's what happened...rain, and we found ourselves waiting for the other shoe to drop which it did late Thursday night just as forecast.
Friday saw a rapid and drastic temperature drop to below 0 degrees, flash freezing of everything that was wet (which, after the rain, was everything), high winds with gusts of near 60 miles per hour, power outages and snow...3-6 inches. No records were set, but it was real ugly.
In the 1963 World Championship match, one shoe dropped on Botvinnik after the 15th game; the other shoe dropped after game 17.
According to Botvinnik it was hard to play Petrosian because "...he had a somewhat different understanding of positional play. He went deeper into it than usual..." and Botvinnik, who described himself as a "universal" player, admitted that he did not "completely understand Petrosian's way and depth of judgment."
The match, unlike Botvinnik's previous world championship matches against Tal, didn't have an exciting start even though Botvinnik won the first game.
Petrosian leveled the score in game 5 and after 14 games the score was tied, but by that time the match had cost Botvinnik too much energy as he tried to deal with Petrosian's unique and sly defensive play and his reserves of strength were exhausted.
As a result the 15th game proved decisive when Petrosian won in subtle positional style.
After a couple of draws the other shoe dropped when Botvinnik lost two more games and the match was over, the last three games being just a formality. Botvinnik knew it and that explained the quick draws to finish the match.
Game 7 was a heavy defeat for Botvinnik because he played the opening poorly and Petrosian quickly obtained a winning position which he duly converted to victory without particular difficulty without Botvinnik being able to put up any real opposition. It was a typical Petrosian game.
Tigran Petrosian–Mikhail Botvinnik1–0A21World Championship Match, Game 7Moscow URS06.04.1963Stockfish 15
English Opening 1.c4 g6 2.f3 g7 3.c3 e5 4.g3 e7 5.g2 0-0 6.d4 exd4 7.xd4 bc6 8.xc6 xc6 A surprising positional error by Botvinnik. In the
position that now results, white's chances are superior, mainly because he
controls the strategically important square d5. For that reason, he should
have played 8...bxc6 8...dxc6 9.g5 xc3+ 10.bxc3 xd1+ 11.xd1 f6 12.f4 e6 equals. Duda,J (2730)-Nabaty,T (2658) Khanty-Mansiysk RUS 2019 9.0-0 d6 10.d2 10.d2 ia aslo good. g4 11.h3 e6 12.b3 White is better.
Toledo Lopez,F-Banegas Gomez,R Spain 1993 10.e3 is less precise,. e5 11.b3 xc4 12.bxc4 xc3 Black stands well. Toothill,J (2174)-Freeman,R
(2088) England 2005 10...g4 This move appears to gain a tempo, but the
gain is illusory. That said even after 10...Be6 black will find it difficult
to maintain equality. 11.h3 e6 12.b3 d7 The supposed tempo gain as white
is forced to play 13.Kh2 13.h2 ae8 14.c1 f5 15.d5 h8 A better plan
would have been 15...Nd8 then 16...c6 driving the N from d5 16.e3 Black's
position is extremely unpleasant and Petrosian simply keeps finding ways to
improve the position of his pieces, while black can hardly do anything useful.
That was a good way to fall into a lost position against Petrosian. g8 17.d2 d8 18.fd1 18.xa7 is a mistake that allows black to equalize. b6 19.xb6 cxb6 20.xb6 with an unclear position. 18...e6 19.f4 Now that
there is no longer a N on c6, black has trouble defending his Q-side. xf4 20.xf4 c8 21.h4 This and the following move are typical of Petrosian's
careful play...before undertaking decisive action, he improves the position of
his pieces still further. e7 22.f3 f7 Slightly better was 22...b6
although even then white just keeps increasing the pressure. 23.a5 e8
Feeble play. The only way to avoid avoid immediate catastrophe 23...Qb8. After
the text move white wins after the simple 24.Qxa7 24.c5 24.xa7 and black
is helpless. e4 24...b6 25.xd6 25.xe4 fxe4 26.e3 White is winning. 24...d5 Desperation or oversight? In either case, there was nothing that
was really better. White has a number of ways he can win. 25.d6
Petrosian gets tactical! 25.xd5 is also good. c6 26.d3 etc 25...d7 For all practical purposes this is the end of the game even though
Botvinnik prefers to drag things out. 25...cxd6 26.cxd6 d7 27.dxe7 xe7 28.xd5 and white is winning. 26.xe7 xe7 27.xd5 f4 28.d2 c6 29.d3 b5 Now black wins back the exchange, but the resulting endgame, a Pawn down,
is hopeless. 30.d4 fxg3+ 31.fxg3 xd4 32.xd4+ g7 33.xg7+ xg7
The ensuing endgame only requires technique which was something
Petrosian possessed in abundance. 34.c2 34.xb7 would be wrong because
it would allow black to activate his R. f2+ 35.g1 xe2 34...e8 35.g2 f6 36.f2 c6 37.xc6 bxc6 38.c4 e5 39.a4 a8 40.a6 d5 41.b4 c4 42.a3 b5 43.a5+ c4 44.e3 a6 45.f4 d5 46.g5 e8 47.xa6 xe2 48.a7 e5+ 49.f4 e7 50.b7 e6 51.a4 d7 52.b8 Finally! Botvinnik
resigned. 1–0
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