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Nigel Short vs Stuart Wagman
"A Short Sharp Schach" (game of the day Aug-30-10)
Lugano op 1986  ·  Sicilian Defense: Dragon Variation. General (B70)  ·  1-0
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Last move:

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Given 14 times; par: 23 [what's this?]

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Kibitzer's Corner
Oct-26-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  tpstar: 22 ... Kxf6 23. Bg5+ Kf7/Kg7 24. Qd7+ Kf8? 25. Bh6+ mates, or 24 ... Kg8 25. Qxe8+ wins the Re8.

After 16. Rxf7! Rxf7 17. Bxf7+ Kxf7 18. Qf3+ note 18 ... Nf6 19. Qxb7+ wins the Ra8.

Cute miniature.

Aug-30-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: The pun is a parody of a line from a song in <The Mikado>, describing the feeling of a person waiting to be beheaded: <"To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark, dock,

In a pestilential prison with a lifelong lock,

Awaiting the sensation of a short sharp shock

From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block.">

Repeat several times, increasingly quickly. It's really quite funny when you see it in person.

Aug-30-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  An Englishman: Good Evening: The title also refers to the "short sharp shock" line in Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.
Aug-30-10  rilkefan: Or to the excellent Michelle Shocked album, "Short Sharp Shocked".
Aug-30-10  darkvader: Nice game...
Aug-30-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  Once: A "short sharp shock" is also a way of fighting crime, especially amongst the yoof. The idea is that you give teenagers who commit relatively petty crimes something like an early prison sentence, a spell in a correctional school or a community order. And, so the theory goes, this is such a shock to their system that they see the error of their ways and become law-abiding citizens from then on.

The irony is that some of the British politicians calling for more "short sharp shocks" have since been caught fiddling their expenses...

Nice game from Nige. He whips up an attack with pseudo sacrifices on f7 and f6. And a recurring theme is the weakness of the loose rook. If 18...Nf6, then 19. Qxb7+ steals the rook from a8. And in the final position, if 22...Kxf6 then 23. Bg5+ followed by Qd7+ and again the rook will fall.

Meanwhile, the black Qa5 does diddly squat on her perch way over on the other side of the board.

Aug-30-10  Arindam Banerjee: A very good game for Mr. Nigel Short!!
I think Move 10 ...Qa5 is the weak move here!!! Any suggestions???
Aug-30-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  Sastre: 10...Qa5 is theory, though it doesn't have a good statistical record. See Opening Explorer.
Aug-30-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  whiteshark: Shortly after the black queen left her home square the Ra8 was in danger.
Aug-30-10  TheChessVids: Schach is German for chess for those who don't know.
Aug-30-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  mrsaturdaypants: And for "check," as in "checkmate." (Not as in, "check, please."
Aug-30-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  David2009: In Monday's GOTD Short vs S Wagman, 1986 the combinations start at move 16 for White with 16 Rxf7.


click for larger view

Inputting this position into Crafty End Game Trainer, http://www.chessvideos.tv/endgame-t... Crafty follows the game defence until move 20 for Black:


click for larger view

Short v Wagman 1986, 20...?

Think of this as a puzzle: Black to play and draw. For the solution see the Crafty link above.

There may be more than one drawing move. To explore alternatives, try defending the position with colours reversed: http://www.chessvideos.tv/endgame-t.... In the game Black played Re8 - a natural developing move which however lost by force.

Today the Dragon is treated more respectfully than yesterday, where the critical position was


click for larger view

Black to play and draw. For my proposed solution (found with Crafty's help) see N Pogonina vs N Dzagnidze, 2009

Aug-30-10  PierreTheLion: I don't have a fancy analysis tool, or talent, but is 21...Re6 any good? After 22.Qh4 ...g5 it looks like it only loses the bishop, and prevents mate but I'm patzeriffic. Either way black's queen is woeful on a5, even I can see that.
Aug-30-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  kevin86: Black will be mated shortly.
Aug-30-10  lzromeu: 18 BF6????

Why not KF6.

Aug-30-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  mike1: lzromeu: 18 BF6???? Why not KF6.

18.... Nf6 19.Qxb7+ followed by Qxa8

Aug-30-10  Atking: N Short has a special touch in chess I like much. Tactics are elegant.

As it was noted white Qg4 vs Qa5 then white Ra1 also more active than black Ra8... a good sense of humour and indeed very effective.


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