|
< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 1 OF 2 ·
Later Kibitzing> |
| Jun-19-09 | | lentil: ...000??!. Material is nominally 'even', but black's KR and both knights are out of service. White owns the centre. Is the outcome a surprise? |
|
Mar-01-14
 | | Phony Benoni: You know, my first thought was that Black's last move was probably ...d5, so maybe an en passant capture was possible. But, of course, the pawn couldn't have come from d7. |
|
| Mar-01-14 | | dzechiel: I recall meeting Duncan Suttles at a tournament in Portland, Oregon in the summer of 1971. He already had a reputation for "original" thought in the opening. A strange bird, but one of Canada's finest players. |
|
| Mar-01-14 | | goldfarbdj: I found the idea of Nxd5, but very little after that was clear to me. |
|
| Mar-01-14 | | Cheapo by the Dozen: The obvious try is
16 Nxd5 cxd5
17 Qxd5,
with the threat of
18 Qa8+ Kc7
19 Ba5+ Bb6
20 Qxa7+ and mate soon follows.
I don't see much in the way of defensive tries for Black other than 17 ... Bb6/Bb4, since making flight squares is so hard (17 ... Be6 is the best try I see for that, and it doesn't do much). White looks likely to get a third pawn for the piece, as both the a- and b-pawns hang by a thread, although in the Bb4 line White has a shot at getting the f-pawn in return. Really solving this problem would, I presume, require a crisper plan to keep the attack going, but I haven't thought of one yet. |
|
Mar-01-14
 | | An Englishman: Good Evening: Sacrifice first, think about it later. The threat of 18.Bd4 discombobulates Black's defenses. Perhaps 17...Bb6, preventing potential Bd2-a5 checks, might have held out longer. |
|
Mar-01-14
 | | radtop: The only IGM I ever had the privilege of playing. Needless to say, he crushed me. I got the first move. |
|
| Mar-01-14 | | patzer2: The Encyclopedia of Chess Middle Games (described at http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-...) classifies the demolition combinations mainly as those sham piece sacrifices (typically Rook, Knight or Bishop for Pawn) occurring around the sixth or seventh rank. This Saturday with 16. Nxd5! we have a demolition sacrifice in the middle of the Board. With two pawns for the piece and an exposed King, White can be no worse and surely has winning chances. The threat <threat of 18 Qa8+ Kc7
19 Ba5+ Bb6 20 Qxa7+  >, noted above by <Cheapo by the Dozen>, makes this fun try worth the price of admission (i.e. the temporary sacrifice of a Knight for two pawns). P.S.: I'll be the first to admit I saw nothing particularly clear or decisive other than that threat, and didn't have a good plan for 17...Kc7, even though 18. Nd4 looks to be a natural follow-up. |
|
Mar-01-14
 | | al wazir: I was with the game score through 17...Kc7. Then I wanted to play 18. Ba5+. Suttles played it too, only four moves later. 18. Ba5+ Bb6 19. Bxb6 axb6 20. Bxb5 Bxb5 21. Qxb5 looks promising, but I can't see my way to a win. |
|
| Mar-01-14 | | diagonalley: ....well, 16.NxQP seems the only move available to take the game forward, but (for the life of me) i couldn't find a convincing continuation. :-( |
|
| Mar-01-14 | | Cheapo by the Dozen: Ah. 17 ... Bb4 loses a piece, as in
16 Nxd5 cxd5
17 Qxd5 Bb4
18 Bxb4 Qxb4
19 Bxg6
with a discovered attack on the d7 bishop.
So my main line is now
16 Nxd5 cxd5
17 Qxd5 Bb4
More later, perhaps. |
|
| Mar-01-14 | | Takya Kotov: As a junior in the early 70s, I played in a simul against him. I don't remember the game at all, except that I lost. But he played the Vienna game against me and also a couple of my friends. As a result the Vienna became part of my repertoire for many years afterwards. |
|
| Mar-01-14 | | Cheapo by the Dozen: Crumb. My most recent post had a typo of "Bb4" in the main line when I meant "Bb6". |
|
| Mar-01-14 | | LAK: Not a difficult puzzle today.
The Knight sacrifice is thematic in such positions. So, really, the starting position for the puzzle is after the insertion of the moves: 16. Nxd5 cxd5 17. Qxd5. In the resulting position it is immediately evident that Black is playing without his Knights and his Rh8; if we squint real hard we see that even his Re8 is on the "wrong side of the board." Meanwhile, White is playing with all his pieces. It's a no-brainer. It takes but a little thought and calculation to see that Black's only real move is 17. ... Kc7. After that, White can follow up in multiple ways, and they all seem to win. I went with the most straight-forward: 18. Ba5+. The idea being that after 18. ... Bb6, 19. Bxb5 opens up the d-file to the Rd1, and mayhem ensues. Stockfish prefers, by a large margin, 18. Be4, although I find its moves, shall we say, non-human. Here's Stockfish's evaluation of best play:
18. Be4 Rb8 19. f5 Rhd8 20. fxg6 Be8 21. Qb3 Rxd2 22. Rxd2 Rc8 23. Nd4 a6 24. gxf7 Nxf7 25. Bf5 Rd8 26. Ne6+ Kb6 27. Nxd8 Nxd8 28. Kb1 Nc6 29. Qd5 g6 30. Bc8 Nb4 31. Qe6+ Qxe6 32. Bxe6 g5 33. Bf5 Bc6 34. g4 hxg4 35. hxg4 Bd5 36. a3
+ (7.85) Depth: 30/48 0:01:05 391 MN
Interestingly, after Suttles' 18. Nd4, Stockfish prefers to continue with 18. ... b4. I found that to be revealing about the nature of the position. 18. Nd4 b4 19. Be4 Rb8 20. Nc6 Be6 21. Qd3 Qd7 22. Qa6 Qc8 23. Qa5+ Bb6 24. Qa4 Bf5 25. Bxb4 Bxe4 26. Rxe4 Kb7 27. Nxa7 Bxa7 28. Rd7+ Qxd7 29. Qxd7+ Ka8 30. Bd6 Rb7 31. Qc6 Nf5 32. Rb4 Nxd6 33. exd6 Rb8 34. Rxb7 Rxb7 35. d7 Be3+ 36. Kb1
+ (6.59--) Depth: 32/52 0:01:07 414 MN |
|
| Mar-01-14 | | LAK: Stockfish on the 18. Ba5+ Bb6 19. Bxb5 plan:
18. Ba5+ Bb6 19. Bxb5 Bxb5 20. Qxb5 Bxa5 21. Qxa5+ Kb8 22. Rd3 Ka8 23. e6 Rc8 24. Rd7 Qc5 25. Qxc5 Rxc5 26. e7 Rcc8 27. Nd4 Kb8 28. f5 Nf4 29. Re3 Nxg2 30. Rb3+ Ka8 31. Rbb7
+ (4.01--) Depth: 33/55 0:01:15 456 MN
By the way, in this variation it really prefers to continue with 19. Be4, giving White a nearly +8 edge. |
|
| Mar-01-14 | | morfishine: <16.Nxd5 cxd5 17.Qxd5> is straightforward and decisive. I tried a variety of moves here for Black at move <17> and all failed. What I found interesting is pondering "why?" and the answer is also straightforward: By move <16> Black is positionally busted because White has an overwhelming advantage at the point of attack, namely the Queenside area bounded by <a5-a8-d8-d5>. Prior to White move <16>, White has Q+2N+2B+2R active and available for the assault, while Black only has Q+2B that he can call on; With Black's Knights and rooks passive and unable to participate, he finds himself outnumbered and outgunned. ***** |
|
| Mar-01-14 | | PJs Studio: I got it up to 18. Nd4. When I first saw it I couldn't believe black just didn't play 18... Bxd4 because it draws the queen off of the deadly h1-a8 diagonal. 18 Be4? |
|
| Mar-01-14 | | gofer: Black has two dim knights and a dumb rook. So white can
afford to "live a little"...
<16 Nxd5 ...>
16 ... Qf8?
17 Nc3
White has only won a pawn, but now owns the centre of the board and black's development is going backwards. I don't think black can refuse
the sacrifice, but the alternative looks very bleak... <16 ... cxd5>
<17 Qxd5 ...>
click for larger viewOkay, white has gained contol of the light squares around the king and is ready to unleash a can of whoop-ass with Be4 and Ba5 both of which seal in the black king. So definitely a nice position for white, but hardly a "done deal". What is black's best defense?
Well some are disasterous!
17 ... Rd8?/Be6?/Bf5?
18 Qa8+ Kc7
19 Ba5+ Bb6
20 Qxa7+ Kc8
21 Qxb6
17 ... Kb8?
18 Be4 Bf5
19 Qa8+ Kc7
20 Ba5+ Bb6
21 Qb7#
So it looks like stopping Qa8+ followed by Ba5+ is key to black's defense. <17 ... Bb6>
Now the tricky bit, get greedy and play Bxb5? Probably not, better to keep black in the corner and threaten to unleash a rook re-loader and also Bb4 causing hayhem! <18 Be4 ...>
click for larger viewWhite is threatening 19 Qb7+ Kd8 20 Bb4.
I see nothing for black in this line...
~~~
Black found <17 ... Kc7> which does put up a better defence than <17 ... Bb6>. Pity I missed it! |
|
Mar-01-14
 | | Penguincw: Like usual, I found the pretty obvious 16.Nxd5 cxd5 17.Qxd5, but I got nothing else. |
|
| Mar-01-14 | | mrknightly: I have followed Chessgames.com for years, and this is the first Avram game I have seen, which for me is disappointing since he was a friend and mentor. If you want to see what he can do, check out Avram v. Fischer, 1957, West Orange Open. Herb told the story that after the game, Fischer got up angry with tears in his eyes and stormed off. Years later Herb was playing in a tournament, and the game needed to be adjudicated. And, guess who the adjudicator was, Fischer, of course. Anyway, Herb claimed he had a pawn advantage and a winning position, but Fischer came over to the table, looked at Herb not at the board, and said,"Avram loses." Unfortunately, I do not know what tournament this was. Herb was a good and kind man, a proud WWII veteran, and a master in both bridge and backgammon. The last time I saw him, he was in his eighties, and had just returned from a backgammon tournament in Las Vegas. He was buried with full military honors in Arlington Cemetery. |
|
| Mar-01-14 | | GlennOliver: Thank you for sharing that, mrknightly. |
|
| Mar-01-14 | | thegoodanarchist: Isn't anyone going to describe White's play as "Suttle"? Or "anything but Suttle"? Oh well, <I> thought it was funny. |
|
| Mar-01-14 | | Nick46: <GlennOliver: Thank you for sharing that, mrknightly.> hear hear. Fischer might have been a chess great but he was evidently a pathetic sort of human being. |
|
| Mar-01-14 | | BOSTER: <dzechiel > I guess you are not a <strange bird.>
Nice to see you. |
|
| Mar-01-14 | | onur87: we have an easy puzzle again and again for an amateur. we cant see a move excluding 16. N*d5. :) |
|
 |
|
< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 1 OF 2 ·
Later Kibitzing> |
Kibitzing
sac: 16.Nxd5