| Feb-06-04 | | InspiredByMorphy: A good example of how one extra developed piece (especially a rook) can make all the difference. Chigorin uses his queen rook early in the game, and his other rook gets into the endgame, while black still has a rook out of play. |
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May-25-07
 | | IMlday: 35.Rc7 wins but is hard to believe! |
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May-25-07
 | | Phony Benoni: <IMlday> Indeed. It makes you wonder if Black actually played 34...Kh8, which stops the threat of 35.Nxf6+ without allowing the fork on e7. There's another odd point a bit later where Black plays 39...Kg8-h8 followed by 40...Kh8-h7. I don't know if that makes any more sense if the sequence is 39...Kh8-g8 and 40...Kg8-h7. |
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May-27-07
 | | Gejewe: <IMlday> <Phony Benoni>
I have the tournament book in front of me and it gives the same score on page 152. But .. on page 350, the corrections, Marco writes that:
-black's 34th move should be Kh7-h8
-black's 38th move should be Kh8-g8
-black's 40th move should be Kg8-h7
So Phony Benoni's guess is correct, and this correction has probably been overlooked by those taking over the game from the tournament book.
Marco gives some short notes on this game :
- 10..Nxb4 wins a pawn, and after 11.Na3 it is best to play 11..d5!
- 16..Nxc3! is a deep combination that wins a pawn
- 20.Bc2 Txc3 with a considerable advantage
- 23..Nf3+ is the only move
- 25..f6? the decisive mistake. Best was 25..c6! to make the Nf3 mobile. |
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May-27-07
| | IMlday: <Gejewe> One mystery solved, another arises. If Maroczy notes 10..Nxb4 11.Na3 d5! then the move order wasn't 9.a4 a6 10.b4 Bb6, but "wins a pawn" or "accepts a gambit" aren't exclusive terms and Chigorin was known to be loose with his b-pawns, e.g. Evan's Gambits. Hypnotism perhaps? That organic advancing mass of all 8 pawns does look a tad Bolshevik. 16..Nxc3! is good if he didn't spend forever on it, setting himself up to miss 26.Rh3. |
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May-27-07
| | Gejewe: <IMlday>
Hi Lawrence. These were Georg Marco's annotations. I have checked the moveorder in the tournament book, and it went 9.f5 h6 10.b4 Bb6 11.a4 a6, but that is just the same as in the gamescore here ( Do you have another source for this game which has 9.a4 a6 10.b4 Bb6 maybe ? That might explain the mystery ). This way it all seems to work, 10..Nxb4 is correct, and after 11.Na3 then d5! cames out best by test computerchecked. Still, I agree that this is a very interesting game to watch. |
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| May-27-07 | | Alekhinelover: Wouldn't 35.Ne7+ win as well? |
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May-27-07
| | IMlday: <Alekhinelover> Yes, but the score seems incorrect.
<Gerard> My only source is here at cg. The game isn't in Grekov's big collection. It was the pawn structure that interested me, reminding of Steinitz-Blackburne, 1876. |
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May-28-07
| | Gejewe: <IMlday>
Thanks for pointing out that Steinitz-Blackburne game. I guess you mean the Vienna game where Steinitz plays an early f5.. and gradually advances ? Did not know that one ..
Two notable games between these two both played in 1876 as well - Steinitz with the white pieces - are a Ruy Lopez ( as a junior I toyed with the idea of modelling my opening against 1..e5 on that game, a d3.. Lopez ), and a wild Vienna starting 2..Nf6 3.f4 d5 3.d3 Bb4!? 5.fxe5 Nxe4!?and a king walk, paving the way for Chigorin who in the same line even played more spectacularly with the king against Caro ( returning safely after having visited d5 ) ! |
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May-28-07
| | IMlday: Steinitz vs Blackburne, 1876 Very Philidorean/Suttilian ~both sides have all their pieces behind the pawns. The f5 wedge should confer some sort of space edge. White certainly has a wide choice for 7th moves including the very coffeehouse double-handed Rf1&Kh1 which, if Black wants to argue, transposes to Maroczy's Variation 7.Rf1. Steinitz vs Blackburne, 1876
Vienna Gambit.Steinitz Variation 12.Bb5+!? playing to win. Chigorin vs H Caro, 1898
Caro's improvement on Blackburne, but the  proved extra acrobatic.
This game is in Grekov with Chigorin's original notes and a 'modern' (1951) recommendation of 4...exf4! 5.Bxf4 Bb4 6.exd5 Nxd5 7.Bd2 0-0 as being ok (lucky igroy)though Lombardy liked White.
The most recent GM example in the cg db of allowing the forced draw is
Mamedyarov vs Harikrishna, 2005
Steinitz vs Chigorin, 1892 is the Ruy line, with a few more examples from that 1892 World Match clickable via the 'find similar games' function. I've also played that old strategy; It's all still pointy stuff! |
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