White to play (and win?)

After mucking around with Knights a bit, my passion for chess was sort of rekindled, and I dusted off my trusted old Radio Shack 2250XL and fired up a game. I usually consider myself lucky if I manage to stay 20 moves in the game without committing some egregious mistake like losing a piece through oversight or tying myself hopelessly in knots, but this time I surprisingly found myself in an interesting position: I breached the black king's defences with some pretty bold moves and won a rook and a pawn in exchange for a bishop and a knight.

I stopped the game at this point and went to bed, with hopes of finding a winning combination over the weekend. But it turns out that I underestimated the computer's resilience, for, on resumption, the bastard managed to neutralise my initiative within a couple of moves and I found myself back on equal terms.

Not willing to let such a potentially winning opportunity turn into a loss, I magnanimously offered a draw, which the machine gratefully accepted (translation: I pressed the Reset/Clear button).

Coming soon: "Chess: Tips, Techniques and Strategies" by Rajesh Jayaprakash (ELO rating 1650)