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| May-10-06 |
| JustAFish: <As a practical matter White had to recapture the bishop, even if he'd seen the mate, in the slight hope that Black hadn't. Just going a piece down with no compensation at all is a certain loss.> This is interesting. It seems to be an instance in which the maxim "play the board not the opponent" doesn't apply. In this case it seems white must gamble that black has merely taken the knight in order to simplify the game and not as the first move in a combination. |
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| May-10-06 |
| Tariqov: <SniperOnG7>Many reasons
1.The passed d pawn can easily be blockaded
2.Black gets a majority on the queenside
3.White's dark squares will be very weak because white does not have a dark squared bishop. |
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May-10-06
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| artemis: I have seen many positions where the person who was down material won the game, especially after blunders by their opponent. The <certain loss> however, is checkmate. The position is lost for white, but in my book, it is much easier to play on without a knight than it is without a king. This puzzle gave me a few problems at first since I was looking at using the knight to remove the f1 bishop, with the idea of hitting g2 hard, but white can easily hold there. Then I realized that the king was stuck, so it did not take a great leap from there to find the Qxh2 sacrifice. The move that almost evaded me was the Bxe4. move. After seeing the win this way, I then looked at Bh4 first, trying to find an even quicker win, looking for someway to get the queen onto g1 before the knight check, getting a mate via 34. ...Bxe4 35. fxe4 Bh4 35. Qg1?? Ng3+ 36. hxg3 Bxg3 37. Qh2 Qxh2#, however the 35th move is far from forced, and indeed simply taking the bishop is fine. Failing to see a quicker win, I looked at the solution. |
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| May-10-06 |
| zb2cr: Saw it all the way to the end--decided that White must recpature at e4 or else be a piece down with mostly imaginary compensation, then noted that the Knight check was riskless, since White isn't going to give up the Queen for a Knight. Then the pieces fell into place for the Queen sacrifice and Rook check. That was a truly nice combination; as <cu8sfan> points out, it could be used as a textbook illustration of how to use various combinative themes. |
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| May-10-06 |
| Halldor: I got the first moves quickly - until the position after 36. g1, there I went off the right track and spent a long time on lines as 36... x or 36... g5 (if 37.hxg3?? fxg3 38. e3 h2# - if White plays badly...). - But going through the first moves again I saw that the position after 36.g1 is a typical Monday puzzle, nice Queen sac ends the game. |
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May-10-06
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| YouRang: I got it, but it was a strange thought process. It was like my instincts found the right line long before I actually saw why it was right. :-| It just seemed natural to get the knight out of the queen's way, and Ng3+ 'looked' strong, but of course we had to first get rid of Black's best defender, the e4 knight. After 34. Bxe4 fxe4 35. Ng3+ Kg1, I achieved my objective, but wasn't sure what was so 'strong' about it. Only after staring at it for a few minutes did I finally consider the queen sac, which led to the familiar rook+knight mating pattern. A great attack and a great puzzle. :-) |
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| May-10-06 |
| cuendillar: I saw almost immediately that 34...Ng3+ 35.Kg1 Qxh2+ mated as given numerous times above. The problem was 35.Nxg3 fxg3 36.Qg1, when white hold things together. Then I decided to take the knight first and everything unfolded. Black does however get the better of it in the latter line too. 36.Qg1 gxh2 37.Qxh2?! Qg5 38.g4 Rh6 39.Bh3 Qh4 picks up a clean piece (40.gxf5? Qg3) 37.Qe3 Bg5 doesn't offer any knock-out blows, but nonetheless should black win. |
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May-10-06
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| kevin86: Missed this one! Darn! I tried Ng3+ and also Bh4-neither work very well,especially the latter. Elegant mate :do I see a theme here for this week? Opera House imitations? |
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| May-10-06 |
| EmperorAtahualpa: Just needed a few seconds for this one again. If this would puzzle would start one move later, it would have been a Monday puzzle. |
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| May-10-06 |
| EmperorAtahualpa: By the way, since this is a game from the 1996 Olympiad, how is it possible that two Greeks are playing against each other? |
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May-10-06
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| TheAlchemist: It says "Michelakis George (RSA)", so he's from South Africa. |
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| May-10-06 |
| EmperorAtahualpa: <TheAlchemist> Really? That's odd... his name sounds Greek and if you check his games from 2005 you will see that he played in the 2005 Greek Teams championship.. |
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| May-10-06 |
| SniperOnG7: <Tariqov> much appreciated :) |
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May-10-06
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| beenthere240: Although the whole discussion of the viability of 35 h3 is ludicrous, how about black simply playing 35...Bxd5 and laughing? |
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| May-10-06 |
| scottnewhouse: There are three possibilities for Black after 35. h3. These include 35...Bxd5, 35...Ng3+, and 35...Bh4. All of these are very bad for White. |
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| May-10-06 |
| Castle In The Sky: I got it. I started by looking at a check on Ng3 but I saw that white's knight covered the square. So I asked myself if it was possible to remove the defender and then the solution fell into place. |
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| May-10-06 |
| Paintbucket: Last thing I saw. |
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| May-10-06 |
| Whitehat1963: I saw it! I can't believe I saw it the whole way through! Yeeee-haaaa!! |
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May-10-06
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| dakgootje: Nothing really to say about it. They almost got me, as i at first sight missed the knight on e4 and was about to click on the puzzle when i realised it, when it took just a few seconds to see the Bxe4 after which my combination worked again. |
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May-10-06
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| jmuller: <beenthere240: Although the whole discussion of the viability of 35 h3 is ludicrous> Personally, I found the discussion helpful, been. Thx esp to durnstein and artemis. As for Bxe4, I would play that at durnstein's move 39..., rather than his sugested 39...Bf5. :-) |
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| May-10-06 |
| shy16889: This game is no good sac. 34 stinks
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| May-10-06 |
| kolio: Didn't get it...
Saw just 34. ... Bh4 which wins the exchange.
Great game! |
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| May-10-06 |
| goldenbear: Any thoughts on 8.h4, with the idea of Nh3? In this way, the light-bishop has a purpose on e2. This looks to me to be a critical continuation. |
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| May-11-06 |
| OBIT: The immediate 34...Ng3+ also looks good to me. Then 35. Nxg3 (35. Kg1 Qxh2+!) fxg3 36. Qg1 Rg5! 37. h3 (forced on this or the next move) Rh5, and after White's next move, Black continues 38...Bxh3 39. gxh3 Rxh3+ 40. Bxh3 Qxh3+ 41. Rh2 gxh2. Regardless of what White played on move 38, Black has many threats, not to mention already up material. |
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| May-15-06 |
| goldenbear: Actually, if you are going to play h4, you may as well play 8.Qd2 first to be more flexible, with the idea of 9.h4. Does anyone know anything about that strategy in this position? |
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