Some years ago I had to play in a tournament against a strong International master with an Elo about 2500 ( Today he is a grandmaster). The evening before I saw on TV an Sumo Fight, which inspired me very much.
A young bull strong heavyweight attacked an old but experienced opponent directly and pushed him almost out of the circle. But some centimeters before the edge his initiative was stopped by the old one.
The next minutes the young one tried all his best to get him over the edge: "Only ten centimeters", he might have thought! But the other stood like a rock on his place.
At last the young one started an almost desperate attack, but the old one countered and threw him head-over over the edge into the depth, where the public was sitting. And under standing ovations, petals were raining from the ceiling on him, the old one stood alone in the spotlight of the circle.
Believe it or not, but this fight became to a pattern for me during the game against the IM next day.
1. Pushed to the edge!
In the opening I was almost outplayed by the IM . After 12 moves I stood on the "edge of the circle"!
2. Standing on the edge I got his initiative stopped!
I knew, that I would loose very quickly playing normal moves . He was already better developed than me and would win his first pawn in the next moves. I had to do something to stop his initiative. So I decided to sacrifice the c4- pawn directly!
3. He took risks to get me "over the edge" and was countered!
Soon came the situation for draw by threefold repetition! I would have been more than satisfied with it. But my opponent not! He tried to get me over the edge and took risks. His queen moved very far away from king side to win a pawn.
When he was short in time, I started a counter on king side.. He lost obviously the overview and went over the edge in a grandiose finale
4. So, how did I manage concretely to get him over the edge?
The tactics decided at the end. After his resigning I felt the petals falling softly down on my head