all in a day's work

I have a 9 a.m. business meeting with one of my clients. We finish by 10, and to my surprise he pulls up this position from his computer:

Larsen-Miles, Bled/Portoroz 1979

White to play and win 

I solve the puzzle in thirty seconds (go to Black's 59th move in this link: must remember to analyze forcing moves first!), think to myself how cute the postion is, then wonder how the heck my client got ahold of such an elegant problem.

Then he hits me with this one, and I start laughing:

Shirov-Dominguez, Corus 2010

Now I know that my client is not reading this blog, as I've previously posted on this combination, though admittedly I never got around to discussing this amazing position.  

Oh, what the heck!  Find White's only drawing move (which even gives White winning chances if Black blunders!):

I even show my client why 29.Qh5 would have lost (essential to closing any business deal!).

Now I really begin to wonder where my friend (an enthusiastic amateur whose initial rating would probably be below 1200) is getting this cool stuff. So he shows me the following app:


Aha! Very cool! We can all learn from our clients....

At 10:30 I give my client a ride from Oprah-ville to City Hall & tell him the story of the aborted Shirov-Kasparov match and how Kramnik became world champion. Somehow this is harder to explain than the combinations....