| May-14-04 | | iron maiden: Neat little denouement here. Black's only legal move is 69...f2, and White can then march the king back to capture the now-undefended pawn, then team up with the knight to win White's remaining pawns. |
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| May-14-04 | | Cerebrate2006: Surely you mean black, but i think that is pretty obvious. Nice game though, i always enjoy pawn chain tatics such as this |
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| May-14-04 | | Abecedarian: Can anyone explain why after 18. Qb3, and then again after 24...Qe6 white doesn't snatch blacks b pawn? Is there a general principle about this kind of formation? Is it poison in some way? |
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| May-14-04 | | Woodpusher: Abec, I don't think it's general principle, it's the nitty gritty tactics of the situation. After 18.Qb3 Bg4 White can't win the b-pawn with 19.Bxg4 Nxg4 20.Qxb7 because of ...Qf2+ (ouch) 21.Kh1 Rf8 etc. About 24...Qe6 25.Qxb7 the problem is ...Qxg4+ and ...f3. Note that 25.Kh2 defends the g-pawn indirectly because if Qxg4?? 26.Rg1 pins the queen. |
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| May-14-04 | | Abecedarian: Thanks <Woodpusher>. Quite right, basic tactics.... With more time (sneaking peaks at chessgames.com at work as I am) I'd have seen them. |
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May-14-04
 | | kevin86: This game looks like one of those problems:mate in 100,In which white forces black to break a deadlocked position over and over. It is as whimsical as it is instructive. I even remmbr a problem in which there were eight promotions. |
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May-14-04
 | | AgentRgent: "Do you know what that sound is Mr. Thomas? That...is the sound of Inevitablility!" What a wonderful game!! I guess that's why I've never been that big a fan of Tal, I'll take a ruthlessly methodical endgame over flashy tactics anyday!! |
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| May-14-04 | | ughaibu: Tal was a great endgame player. |
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| May-14-04 | | Jim Bartle: Tal was often not considered a good endgame player, which he didn't appreciate. In his book he says he took particular pleasure in defeating in a tough endgame a player (can't remember who) who'd said something along the lines of "Tal is an excellent GM in the opening, a brilliant GM in the middlegame, and an ordinary GM in the endgame." |
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| May-14-04 | | Jim Bartle: If I'm not mistaken, this game was used as an example in Fine's Basic Chess Endings. |
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May-14-04
| | AgentRgent: Ughaibu: I'm certain that Tal was an accomplished endgame player. One does not become World Champion without considerable endgame skill. But he certainly is not as well known for his endgame prowess, thus my comment. BTW could you point to any particularly interesting Tal endgames? |
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| May-14-04 | | ughaibu: Sure, I knew what you meant and take your point. The endgames of Tal's that impressed me were striking by there active conduct. Off hand I cant recall any in particular though the long black against Fischer in the 1959 candidates might fit. Tomorrow I'll try to post some. |
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| May-14-04 | | Phoenix: The end position is truly beautiful! |
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| May-14-04 | | ancienregime: ...But not as beautiful as Thomas' win over Botvinnik! =) Thomas, despite finishing near the bottom of the table in many a tournament, was actually quite the player... |
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| May-14-04 | | Cornwallis: zugswang!!! |
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May-14-04
 | | tpstar: <AgentRgent> In this Neo Queen's Gambit, 6. c5!? created a Pawn matrix which presumably reloaded opening strategy, yet there were no revolutions forthcoming. White played like a machine, whereas Black kept dodging bullets in slow motion until his computer crashed with 21 ... Bh4?! - a sound piece sacrifice would yield a trinity of Pawns, not 1 or 0. 25. Kh2! made Black choose between the red pill (25 ... Qxg4?? 26. Rg1) or the blue pill (25 ... Rf8) so he never developed any life-sustaining battery. Once the major pieces were eliminated, White ran Black down the rabbit hole like a dozer, then could switch to snatching Pawns, and later more cat-&-mouse play. Ultimately White proved he was The One, Mr. Thomas Anderson was done, and the lights went out in Zion - unless it was a tank job. |
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| May-14-04 | | ajile: After white played C5? I think Black could have gone into a favorable Stonewall formation since C5 kills all of whites pressure on d5. The key for White to break open the Dutch Stonewall is C4 but after C5 Black can still transpose into a Dutch Stonewall with no ill effect and then launch the normal KSide attack. In most of the analysis I've seen the move C5 by White or C4 by black is considered weak in these formations. Black could also simply play for an early E5 instead on advancing the Knight to E4. |
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May-14-04
| | AgentRgent: tpstar: I almost had to consult an Oracle to explain your post.. ;-) |
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| Jul-02-05 | | aw1988: I nominate tpstar's post for best ever. |
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| Jul-02-05 | | fgh: Amazing endgame. |
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| Jul-02-05 | | aw1988: Oh, yes, about the game- amazing. |
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| Jul-02-05 | | fgh: <aw1988>: Of course, whenever you want, we can discuss the actual game instead of tpstar's posts :-) |
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| Jan-24-09 | | WhiteRook48: Ok, that last position was just funny |
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Jul-27-09
 | | Peligroso Patzer: The “interesting and instructive” (the phrase is from Alekhine in the tournament book, referring to the play after 39. ... Kxh4) finale of this game would never have occurred if Botvinnik had found a remarkable winning idea starting with 37.Qe5+! (which was also missed by Alekhine in his annotations in the tournament book, "Nottingham 1936", by Alekhine, Alexander, Russell Enterprises, Inc. ©2009, pp. 141-143). Based upon analysis using Rybka 3, it appears that the following would be best play for both sides: 37. Qe5+ Qxe5+ 38.dxe5 Kg6 39.Nf2 Kf5 40.Ng4! h5 41.Nf6 Kxe5 42.Nxh5 d4 43.exd4+ Kxd4 44.Kg3 Ke3 45.Nf6  . |
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