Idee Fixe
First things first, if you’re not familiar with the term Idee Fixe, then here is a primer for you. Even if you’ve never heard the term, you’ll still undoubtedly be familiar with the concept.
A synonym for this is obsession, and we’ve all been there at the chessboard. You see an idea. You fixate on that idea. You can’t put that idea away. And then…something changes.
Here is an excellent example of this. I can’t say for sure that this is what happened here, but it sure seems likely, and if I were the player of the White pieces, I think that I would have been quite likely to fall into this exact outcome.
Let’s start with this position.
Here, our future Candidate goes wrong by playing 14…Rb8. Now, after 15.Bf4 the threat is for White to take on f6.
In the above position, if it were White’s move, the idea is to play Nxf6, and then Black would be stuck with either capturing with the g pawn, which seems fatal, and capturing with the Bishop, which, after Bxd6, Blacks rooks are forked.
However, it’s not White’s move, it’s Blacks. Now, after 15…Rb6 we have:
Here’s where the Idee Fixe may come into play in this game, and certainly has in my own.
In the position after 15.Bf4 above, White wanted to take on f6. However, things have changed. In the game, White continued 16.Nxf6 Bxf6 17.Bxd6 Rxd6 18.Bxh7+ Kxh7 19.Qxd6, and here we have this position:
The engine evaluates this as -1.46 at depth 30.
The correct way to play here is
