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Every chessplayer loves to show off his games, and this desire to share whatever artistic moments we manage to create was my original reason for putting together the sampling that follows.

Going through my old scoresheets, I realized a couple of things. One was that I threw away most of my original tournament efforts. These old games are lost forever, and all I can do now is implore you not to make this same moronic mistake. The other thing that rapidly became obvious as I played through the games I still possess (many of which had been completely forgotten!) was that my style had gone through clear changes as the years passed. After quite a bit of thought, I decided that this stylistic progression--at times brought about by necessity and at other times not--would be the theme binding all the games together.

In the end, two extremes book-ended my playing career: I started out as a pure attacker, lusting for mate and having no fear in my heart, and ended as a safe, often defensive player--the mandate of avoiding defeat robbed me of some of my earlier creativity, and that same fear of losing brought out my warrior mentality if my back was against the wall.

Why is this an important topic? One reason is that most players get caught in this same trap--they learn to play in a certain way and actually become a prisoner of their "style." In the vast majority of cases, a stubborn need to prove that their way of playing is the "right" way stops them from developing any talent they might have; they end up caught at a certain level and are never able to make the adjustments necessary to progress.

So get out your chess set, relax, and let's share a little journey together. It might appear to be my story, but if you take an honest look at yourself, you'll occasionally find that the mirror reflects both our images.

As mentioned in my look at THE STUDY OF MASTER GAMES (under CHESS INSTRUCTION), I was an Alekhine fan in my youth and desperately tried to emulate his style. At sixteen years of age, I wasn't aware that my strong tactical skills wouldn't compensate for my lack of positional understanding and technique. I felt confident that I would eventually get a grandmaster title on brute force calculation alone!

The following game snippet has me down an Exchange, but I had spotted a nice combination made possible by a pretty final point.

Liddell-Silman, San Diego 1971. Black to play and win.

1...Bf4+ 2.Bg3 Ng4!+ 3.hxg4 (Better was 3.Kh1, even though 3...f2 would be winning for Black.) 3...Qxg4 (threatening 4...Qh4 mate) 4.Bf1 Qh4+ 5.Bh3 Bd7 6.Kh1 Bxg3 7.Rxg3 Qxg3 8.Bxd7 (It looks like White has managed to survive, but now I get to demonstrate the point of the combination.) 8...Qe1+ 9.Kh2 Qe2+, 0-1. This was foreseen before I played 1...Bf4+. After 10.Qxe2 fxe2 White can't stop the pawn from promoting.

Well, the Liddell game seemed to verify my "tactics above all else!" view. However, the next was my first hint that something might be lacking in my chess education.

R Gross-Silman
Los Angeles 1971
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Bg5 c5 6.d5 h6 7.Bh4 0-0 8.Bd3 e6 9.Nge2 (Gross, already an experienced master at that time, played this system often. I, on the other hand, didn't know the variation at all.) 9...exd5 10.exd5 g5 11.Bg3 Nh5 (Black really isn't playing for ...Nxg3 since that might give the f5-square to White in many lines. Instead, I wanted to play ...f7-f5 and create a bit of excitement!) 12.Qc2 f5 13.f3 f4 (Nowadays I would worry about opening the d3-Bishop's diagonal, and also giving the c3-Knight access to e4. The younger Silman saw things differently: this gives me a firm hold on e5 while my g7-Bishop struck me as being particularly potent.) 14.Bf2 Nbd7 15.h4 (He wants to attack ME? Quick! What would Alekhine play?)

Black to move and fight for the initiative.

15...g4!! (As usual, I would do anything for the initiative.) 16.fxg4 Nf6 17.Nxf4 Ne5 (My active pieces made me very happy. Now, of course, the old and cowardly Silman would be horrified!) 18.0-0-0? (Gross cracks in the face of the upcoming tactics. He really should have imbibed a huge dose of testosterone and played the natural 18.g5, though the position after 18...Nfg4 [be it sound or not] would have been very much to my teenage taste.) 18...Nfxg4 19.g3 Nxd3+ 20.Nxd3 Bf5 21.Rhf1 Ne5 (The Siren call of greed proved too much, and I went for an endgame that I thought had to be winning. Now, with years of experience behind me, I would be more inclined to continue the attack by 21...Qa5 when White's position looks very bad.) 22.Be1 Nxd3+ 23.Rxd3 Bxd3 24.Qxd3 Rxf1 25.Qxf1 Qf6 26.Qxf6 Bxf6 27.Ne4 and the wily Gross ended up making an eventual draw.

I was depressed since I felt I had somehow tossed away a certain win. I chalked it up to "bad luck," not realizing that lack of technical know-how was the real culprit (and yes, technical skills allow you to know when to continue an attack [i.e., 21...Qa5] and when to recognize a winning endgame and cash in).

Mr. Gross and I didn't play again for 21 years! However, when we did sit down for "a second go," the change in style was very apparent.

Silman - R Gross
Los Angeles, 1992
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.g3 (The Catalan was a big favorite of mine at that time: subtle, safe, and full of poison.) 3...dxc4 4.Bg2 Nf6 5.Qa4+ Bd7 6.Qxc4 Bc6 7.Nf3 Bd5 8.Qd3 Be4 9.Qd1 c5 10.Nc3 Bc6 11.0-0 Nbd7 12.Qc2 cxd4 13.Nxd4 Bxg2 14.Kxg2 Bc5 15.Rd1 (The young Silman would have been bored to tears, but the 1992 Silman was very satisfied with the opening's result. White has no weaknesses, more central space, and more active minor pieces. In other words, I can torture my opponent with no risk whatsoever.) 15...0-0 16.e4 Qe7 17.Qe2 (A very strong move that gets the Queen off the vulnerable c-file, keeps the f6-Knight off of g4 [making Be3 possible], makes Black worry about a possible e4-e5, and prepares Qb5 in many lines.) 17...Bxd4 (Black didn't like White's threat of e4-e5 so he decides to advance his own e-pawn. The Knight was captured since an immediate 17...e5 would have been met by 18.Nf5.) 18.Rxd4 e5 19.Rd1 (White's advantage has grown. Now the d5-square is vulnerable and the dark-squared Bishop will be quite strong on e3.) 19...Nb6 20.Be3 Rfd8 21.Qb5! (Hitting b6 and e5 and preparing the very annoying a2-a4-a5 advance. Things might seem quiet, but Black is actually in serious trouble.) 21...Qe6 22.b3 (Dominating the b6-Knight.) 22...h6 23.a4 Rxd1 24.Rxd1 Rc8 25.Rd3 (Slow and steady. Sometimes the simplest moves can get the job done.) 25...Qc6 (Black didn't know what to do about White's threat of a4-a5.) 26.Qxe5 Re8 27.Qd6 (Experience had taught me what endgames to avoid and what endgames to embrace.) 27...Nxe4 28.Qxc6 bxc6 29.a5 (Game over. 29...Nc8 loses a piece to 30.Nxe4 Rxe4 31.Rd8+.) 29...Nxc3 30.axb6 Nd5 31.bxa7, 1-0. One possible end is 31...Ra8 32.Rxd5 cxd5 33.b4 when nothing can be done about b4-b5-b6-b7.

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