Burning the midnight oil…
SPRAGGETT ON CHESS
The unpleasant zwischenzug
POSITION AFTER WHITE’S 36th MOVE (36.Rh2):
gm RUBLEVSKY
gm CARUANA
This game was played yesterday in the Karpov International (Poikovsky). The above position is pretty balanced and nothing much is happening. White has hopes (dreams) of doing something down the h-file, but simply 36…Rh6!? is good enough to snuff out that: after 37.Qf3 Qg6 38.Rxh6 gxh6 is there anything for either to play for?
INSTEAD, Rublevsky felt he could do better to ‘kill’ the position with 36…Be6?! . But this was based on a miscalculation. The game continued 37.Bxa6! Bxb3 (?–but this is Rublevsky’s whole idea behind his 36th move).
WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN!
38.Qb5!!
Ouch, that hurts!
Ouch, that hurts!
A brilliant zwischenzug that caught Rublevsky completely off-guard! The threat of the back rank check (accentuated by the open h-file) forces Black to retreat and then captures the Bishop on b3, gaining a winning material advantage (Black can win back the piece but he would lose his key pawns: 38…Qd8 39.ab3 d3!? 40. cd3 Qa8 41.Rh5! and the game is easily won.
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THE PRETTY EXECUTION
POSITION AFTER 28 MOVES:
gm LAZNICKA
gm MOTYLEV
It has been a hard fought game up to Black’s last move (28…Bd4?) and this gives White the chance he was waiting for to break into Black’s compromised K-position:
29.Bxg6! PxB 30.Rxg6 Qh7 (…Bxf6 is a bit better but would not save Black)
31.Qb7!!
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Killing
Morozevich unstoppable in Saratov!
It seems that nobody can stop Morozevich at the Governor’s Cup and he leads a strong field by a whole point after just 4 rounds. He has won his last 2 games (both with the Black pieces!), though today’s effort featured a considerable element of luck when first Morozevich and then Ni Hua overlooked a strong finesse (zwischenzug) that could have won the game in short order!
POSITION AFTER WHITE’S 18th MOVE (18.g4!):
gm MOROZEVICH
gm NI HUA
The opening has not gone well for the Russian , but he works to keep White from simply rolling him over on the K-side with his pawn advance.
18… e5!? 19. fe Qxe5 20. h4 g6!? 21. Rf4
Here Morozevich should go thru with his originally intended 21… Bxg4!? 22. Rxg4 Nxg4 23. Qxg4 , where we have an unbalanced position very similar to what later actually happened later in the game. The 2 minor pieces are somewhat better than the Rook and Pawn, but no more than that; it would still be a tough fight for both players.
INSTEAD, Morozevich played weaker:
21… Kg7? 22. Rf1
Here Morozevich must have thought that there was no essential difference if he would take the Pawn on g4 with his Bishop, but he is very mistaken.
Relatively best is 22… Nxg4 23. Rxf7 Rxf7 24. Qxf7 Kh6 but after 25. Qf8! Kh5 26. Ne4 Black has a difficult game to try to hold. Losing immediately would be 26… Bf5? 27. Qf7! Bxe4 28. Qxh7 Nh6 29. Be2 etc.
22… Bxg4?
Now the Chinese star can get a winning position with the finesse 23. Qh1!! which simply threatens to win a piece! After 23… Qe3 (what else?) 24. Kb1 Nh5 25. Rxg4 Ng3 26. Rxg3 Qxg3 27. Ne4 Qe5 28. Nf6 Rbd8 29. h5 Black can not hold out for long.
BOTH PLAYERS OVERLOOKED THIS ZWISCHENZUG!
23. Rxg4? Nxg4 24. Qxg4 Rbd8
And we now have a very similar position to the one described above in the note after White’s 21st move. The game is just beginning…later errors cost the Chinese star the game.
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