Doubt, panic can lead to losses

Time pressure and tenuous confidence can combine to bring even the best player to his knees.

In the seventh game of the February match between Veselin Topalov and Gata Kamsky, a shot at a future match for the world title was at stake.

Topalov won the 45-move battle and the right to play Viswanathan Anand, the current champion, but only after Kamsky twice failed to capitalize in advantageous positions.

When Kamsky found himself short of time late in the game, his cagey opponent chose moves that would complicate and intensify the struggle.

“I counted on my opponent’s time pressure,” Topalov said afterward.

In a key position on the 25th move, Kamsky saw a play that gave him winning chances, but, as he later explained: “I didn’t trust myself. I thought it can’t be good. But, of course, it was good. I should have just trusted my instincts.”

Seven moves later, he flinched again.

“I saw this idea and I realized I should play it,” Kamsky said, “but I just lost it. I stopped trusting myself and panicked.”

The defeat was not only a personal failure. American chess is still looking for a successor to Bobby Fischer, and most of its hopes rest on Kamsky’s shoulders.

Here is the full article.