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Leonid Stein vs Vasily Smyslov
"The Pin is Mightier" (game of the day May-24-05)
USSR Team ch 1972  ·  English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense. Queens Indian Formation (A17)  ·  1-0
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Given 19 times; par: 43 [what's this?]

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing>
May-12-05  prs: <aw1988> Chess is not all about quantity. Extra bishop will enable White to create a passed pawn and Queen it, after which the material advantage will become decisive. As a parallel, if you remove white pawn and black bishop in chess starting position, leaving all the other pieces intact will it be a drawn position?
May-12-05  Resignation Trap: And, besides, 36. Rd6+ wins the g-Pawn.
May-12-05  aw1988: Rd6 is what I was looking for. Thanks.
May-24-05  ConspTheory06: I dont know where you see blacks extra pawn a quck check with the rook and the kingside pawn comes off.
May-24-05  soberknight: <PaulLovric> You are FIFTEENTH. You are not even the first poster in the last two weeks.

Anyone can sit at the computer at 12 AM Eastern U.S. time and wait for chessgames.com to post its new daily features. I've done it a few times myself. Nobody here is impressed by your alarm-clock precision.

I do not like to threaten the I-word, but I'm starting to lose patience with you. Please apply your love for chess in more productive ways.

May-24-05
Premium Chessgames Member
  PaulLovric: <soberknight>G'day from Australia. you are sleeping whilst you're awake: i am first, yes, and i do love chess, you are right again. however, it is 2:30 pm here and it is at that time just about everyday when i log in after lunch at the school where i teach. i say "first" as a little joke to myself, perhaps to remind me how often i come here. maybe even it's to keep the thought of our network administrators asking me, "why do you waste so much time at cg.com and not on sound educational research ?",out of my mind.......what's with all the fuss mate? anyway and as far as your idle threat of using the "I" button, really, build a bridge and get over it, or ring someone who actually gives a rats rectum.
May-24-05
Premium Chessgames Member
  PaulLovric: and as far as productivity goes, it is here at cg.com that i have been in conversations with GM zusanz polgar and have organised one set of her instructional DVDs to be sent to my school where infact i am trying to introduce chess into the curriculum. i am pleased that you are "impressed" with my "alarm clock precision". cheers matey
May-24-05  themindset: <PaulLovric> i'm sorry but i agree with <soberknight> if you have nothing else to write aside from "first", please don't bother. unless you won't to be ignored by at least two people.
May-24-05
Premium Chessgames Member
  tpstar: Beautiful game. However, I disagree with classifying the winning tactic here as a cross-pin. Compare to this one W Schelfhout vs NN, 1910 or this one Cherepkov vs Petrosian, 1961 where the involved piece is the center of the action. The present example is more properly a counter-pin, freeing the Bg2 to capture on c6 and thus creating a third pin which is decisive.
May-24-05  AlaskanAmber: <PaulLovric> Don't sweat it, mate. A bit of eccentricity on these pages from time to time is perfectly harmless. Compared to a good many truly odd posts by highly dubious characters one encounters here and there, your little idiosyncracy is quite minor and needn't be apologized for.

Free spirits and overly earnest stuffed shirts seem to exist in roughly equal numbers on this site.

May-24-05  Kangaroo: I agree with those who tend to balance the admiration about the pin. What is then amusing in the game then? - The brave approach shown by Leonid Stein who sacrificed pawns (especially, 13. h6!) planning to open the game for his bishops that went up like elephants ruining the position of Smyslov.

To keep a balanced view on the duel of the two giants of chess, I strongly recommend another game, Smyslov vs Leonid Stein, 1969 - also quite impressive, although with no fireworks.

May-24-05  MarioBalibrera: The pun is mightier than the sword.
May-24-05  farrooj: I didn't know pushing the h pawn that far was perfectly sound... isnt there a refutation, cant black play h6 at some point. And by the way cool pin, didn't see it coming
May-24-05
Premium Chessgames Member
  kevin86: I think the proof of this game,artistically,was that I was eager to add it to my game collection-then I saw it was already there.

<MarioBalibrera>Great to see a pun with the word "pun" in it.

May-24-05  samvega: <tpstar> "Cross-pin" is sometimes used to refer to a piece pinned along two intersecting diagonals (aka double-pin, as in your examples), while others use "cross-pin" to refer to a piece exerting a pin itself being pinned (aka counter-pin, as in this game). I used to prefer the latter definition, but now that you've introduced me to the term "counter-pin", I think I prefer your terminology.
May-24-05
Premium Chessgames Member
  PaulLovric: <AlaskanAmber>i never say much here, glad you're not a member of the "witch hunt", LMBO, i believe strongly in ben franklin when he said, "better say nothing and look foolish, than to speak and remove any doubt"
May-24-05  soberknight: <PaulLovric> I have seen something like that quotation attributed to Samuel Johnson (the earliest), Mark Twain, and Abraham Lincoln (http://www.quotationspage.com/searc...), but never to Ben Franklin.

Exactly that quote explains why you should not write the word "first."

May-24-05  AlaskanAmber: <Paul Lovric><soberknight> Franklin's version of the aphorism is this:

"Silence is not always a sign of wisdom, but babbling is ever a mark of folly."

May-24-05
Premium Chessgames Member
  PaulLovric: touche
May-24-05
Premium Chessgames Member
  bumpmobile: The position after black's 28th move is used in the tutorial on Chessmaster 7000 to illustrate pins ("what is white's best move?"). I didn't get it right there, so it was a joy to recognize it here and know what was going to happen. <Paul Lovric> I can't wait for the word "first" to start slipping into everyone's posts a la Bartelby... "I'd prefer not to be first" :-)
May-25-05
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: Korchnoi mentions Stein's passing in Chess is My Life, referring to the heart attack as 'the chess player's occupational disease'. It's most unfortunate that he didn't get another shot in the world title series, after his near misses in 1962 and 1968.

In the final position, 36.Be4 Re8 37.f3 wins easily.

Jun-06-05
Premium Chessgames Member
  patzer2: Stein plays a strong game, but the same cannot be said for Smyslov who makes a number of miscues, missing chances to equalize with 10...c5!, 13...g6!, 16...Nf8! and 17...Nf8!

After the losing blunder 17...c5?, White ignores the attack on his Bishop and initiates a winning attack on the pinned Knight with 18. g4!, which facilitates the decisive infiltration of the Black position with multiple threats after 20. Qd5!

In the followup, White misses a quick win he could've had with the double attack combination 25. Qa8+! Qd8 26. Qd5 Qf6 27. Qxc4! .

Still, White's initiative is sufficient to carry through to a surprise pinning combination. Black tries to swindle a draw in a lost position with 27...Qc6, only to be caught with the surprise pin 29. Rh8!, which sets up the final decisive pin 31. Bc6!

Aug-14-05  sitzkrieg: First!

@ PaulLovric:
Keep doing what ur doing!

Aug-23-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  notyetagm: White to play: 28 ?


click for larger view

<bumpmobile: The position after black's 28th move is used in the tutorial on Chessmaster 7000 to illustrate pins ("what is white's best move?").>

28 Qb7xQc6 Rc4xQc6


click for larger view

And now the great Leonid Stein (White) uncorks 29 Rh7-h8!!,

29 Rh7-h8!! <remove the guard>


click for larger view

a brilliant tactical blow which <REMOVES THE GUARD> of the Black c6-rook by <PINNING> the Black g8-rook which meets the threat of Bg2xRc6 by <PINNING> the White g2-bishop to the White g1-king. So Stein <PINS> the <PINNING> piece!

The nasty tactical point of Stein's play is seen immediately in the variation 29 ... Rg8xRh8 30 Bg2xRc6

(VAR) 29 ... Rg8xRh8 <unpinning> 30 Bg2xRc6


click for larger view

and now the Black d7-knight falls since it is both <EN PRISE> -and- <PINNED>.

More outstanding tactical play by the great Leonid Stein and a GM-level example of <PINS>.

Oct-27-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  whiteshark: Just when Black thought he's out of the woods now, comes <29.Rh8!!>, winning a piece.
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