The losses don't happen only to inexperienced players or in games in which one player is vastly superior to the other. Masters, even world-class masters, can fall victim.
In a 1993 game former world champion Anatoly Karpov blundered a piece on move 12 against Larry Christiansen and promptly resigned.
In the 1984 US Championship IM Kamran Shirazi was playing White against IM John Peters and Shirazi blundered on move 5 (!) then resigned after Christiansen's reply because he was going to lose a Rook.
These short stories of the chessboard may tickle our funny bone, but they also can have value. Even though the games are short and may contain mistakes by the loser, in some cases we may admire the ability of the winner to set up a situation where the error is possible. In other cases the game is actually worthy of study. And almost all miniatures contain something interesting in the opening.
The following game won a special beauty prize. After 8 moves black's position doesn't look too bad even though his K-side looks suspiciously weak.
His 9th move looks like it establishes a nice Pawn center, but the trouble is white is better developed and black's K has remained in the center just one move too long. And so...WHAM! Just like that black loses almost instantly.
The winner Luis Lalau (September 11, 1896 - February 8, 1971, 74 years old) was born and died in Buenos Aires. He was awarded the IM title in 1965. In 1965 he was the South American Champion.
His opponent, Dutch Master Jan Willem te Kolste (September 11, 1874 - January 31, 1926, 61 years old) was born in Utrecht and passed away in The Hague.
Luis Palau–Jan te Kolste1–0A48London Olympiad FinalLondon ENG22.07.1927Stockfish 15.1
QP Opening 1.f3 f6 2.d4 g6 3.c3 d5 4.f4 h5 Either 4...Bg7 or 4...
c6 are more precise. 5.e5 Black either must allow a slight weakening of
his K-side or exchange his B with 5...Bg7 with also leave him weak on the dark
squares plus his N on g7 would hardly be in a good place. f6 6.g3 xg3 7.hxg3 c6 7...f5 as in Winants,L (2560)-Hovhanisian,M (2502) Belgium 2015 is
not too bad of a choice. 8.e5 g7 9.f4 e6 10.e3 d7 11.e2 c6 12.d2 a5 White is a smidgen better. 8.e3 8.e4 is more aggressive. g7 9.d3 dxe4 10.xe4 With a minimal advantage. Pushkov,N (2434)-Rmus,A (2359)
Obrenovac 2004 8...g7 9.d3 Black is blissfully unaware of the threat of
Rxh7 e5 This sets up a nice center, but black now falls victim to a
brilliant sacrifice. 9...0-0 leaves black with a solid position even
though the Ps in front of his K look weak. 10.d2 e5 He can get away with
this now...or can he? Practically just about any developing move would likely
turn out better. 11.dxe5 fxe5 12.e4 e8 with a solid position. 13.exd5
Or 13.Be2 e4 14.xe4 cxd5 15.0-0-0 dxe4 16.de1 exd3 16...f5 17.c4+ e6 18.xe4 xc4 19.xe8 xe8 White is better. 17.xe8 xe8 18.xd3 f5 and technically at least black has enough compensation for the Q 10.xh7 f7 10...xh7 11.xg6+ e7 12.xh7 and white is clearly better. 10...e4 This is his best chance, but it leaves white with a winning position. Just
one quick example... 11.xg7 exd3 12.xd3 f5 13.e4 dxe4 14.c4 d6 15.f7+ d8 16.h4 d7 17.0-0-0 f8 18.xf8+ xf8 19.xf5 gxf5 20.d5 c5 21.xb7 11.xg6+ Another surprise. xg6 11...f8 12.xh8+ xh8 13.h4 c7 14.h5 g7 15.h7 e6 16.h5 f7 17.g4 Material may be equal, but
positionally white has a won game. Here's Stockfish's best line after 15
minutes... a6 18.e2 g8 19.g6+ f7 20.xe5+ e6 21.g6 h8 22.g5 h7 23.f4+ e7 24.g4 fxg5 25.xg5+ d6 26.0-0-0 b5 27.g6 c7 28.xh8 xh8 29.e7+ b6 30.e5 h7 31.xh7 xh7 32.a3 12.xe5+ Another
sacrifice. White mates in 7 fxe5 12...xh7 Holds out a bit longer. 13.h5+ g8 14.f7+ h7 15.0-0-0 h3 16.h1 d7 17.xd7 h6 18.f4 xd7 19.xh3# 13.h5+! f6 14.xe5+ f7 15.xg7+ Some sources have black
resigning here. Others have him getting mated next move. e6 16.e5#
After his slip on move 9 black never had a ghost of a chance. 1–0
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