Waiting For The Other Shoe To Drop

     This rather quaint saying means waiting for something to happen that is believed to be inevitable. 

     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.

 

[Event "World Championship Match, Game 7"] [Site "Moscow URS"] [Date "1963.04.06"] [Round "?"] [White "Tigran Petrosian"] [Black "Mikhail Botvinnik"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A21"] [Annotator "Stockfish 15"] [PlyCount "103"] [EventDate "1963.??.??"] {English Opening} 1. c4 g6 2. Nf3 Bg7 3. Nc3 e5 4. g3 Ne7 5. Bg2 O-O 6. d4 exd4 7. Nxd4 Nbc6 8. Nxc6 Nxc6 {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. Bg5 Bxc3+ 10. bxc3 Qxd1+ 11. Rxd1 f6 12. Bf4 Be6 {equals. Duda,J (2730)-Nabaty,T (2658) Khanty-Mansiysk RUS 2019}) 9. O-O d6 10. Bd2 (10. Qd2 {ia aslo good.} Bg4 11. h3 Be6 12. b3 {White is better. Toledo Lopez,F-Banegas Gomez,R Spain 1993}) (10. Be3 {is less precise,.} Ne5 11. b3 Nxc4 12. bxc4 Bxc3 {Black stands well. Toothill,J (2174)-Freeman,R (2088) England 2005}) 10... Bg4 {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 Be6 12. b3 Qd7 {The supposed tempo gain as white is forced to play 13.Kh2} 13. Kh2 Rae8 14. Rc1 f5 15. Nd5 Kh8 {A better plan would have been 15...Nd8 then 16...c6 driving the N from d5} 16. Be3 {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.} Bg8 17. Qd2 Nd8 18. Rfd1 (18. Bxa7 {is a mistake that allows black to equalize.} b6 19. Nxb6 cxb6 20. Bxb6 {with an unclear position.}) 18... Ne6 19. Nf4 {Now that there is no longer a N on c6, black has trouble defending his Q-side.} Nxf4 20. Bxf4 Qc8 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.} Re7 22. Bf3 Bf7 {Slightly better was 22...b6 although even then white just keeps increasing the pressure.} 23. Qa5 Be8 { 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. Qxa7 {and black is helpless.} Re4 (24... b6 25. Rxd6) 25. Bxe4 fxe4 26. Qe3 {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. Bd6 {[%mdl 512] Petrosian gets tactical!} (25. Rxd5 {is also good.} Bc6 26. Rd3 {etc}) 25... Qd7 {For all practical purposes this is the end of the game even though Botvinnik prefers to drag things out.} (25... cxd6 26. cxd6 Qd7 27. dxe7 Qxe7 28. Qxd5 {and white is winning.}) 26. Bxe7 Qxe7 27. Rxd5 f4 28. Qd2 Bc6 29. Rd3 Bb5 {Now black wins back the exchange, but the resulting endgame, a Pawn down, is hopeless.} 30. Rd4 fxg3+ 31. fxg3 Bxd4 32. Qxd4+ Qg7 33. Qxg7+ Kxg7 { [%mdl 4096] The ensuing endgame only requires technique which was something Petrosian possessed in abundance.} 34. Rc2 (34. Bxb7 {would be wrong because it would allow black to activate his R.} Rf2+ 35. Kg1 Rxe2 $14) 34... Re8 35. Kg2 Kf6 36. Kf2 Bc6 37. Bxc6 bxc6 38. Rc4 Ke5 39. Ra4 Ra8 40. Ra6 Kd5 41. b4 Kc4 42. a3 Kb5 43. Ra5+ Kc4 44. Ke3 a6 45. Kf4 Kd5 46. Kg5 Re8 47. Rxa6 Rxe2 48. Ra7 Re5+ 49. Kf4 Re7 50. Rb7 Ke6 51. a4 Kd7 52. Rb8 {Finally! Botvinnik resigned.} 1-0