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Wolfgang Unzicker vs Mikhail Tal
Milan 1975  ·  Sicilian Defense: Kan. Knight Variation (B43)  ·  1-0


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Given 28 times; par: 40 [what's this?]

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing >
May-06-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  patzer2: Unzicker's brilliant 24. Rxf7!! is a decoy, which sets a pin (24...Rxf7 25. Qg6) to deflect the Black Queen away from the action (25...Qg2) in order to spring a clearance sacrifice (26. Nd6+!) and prepare a double attack (26...Bxd6 27. Bxc6+) that on the surface appears to win only a pawn.

However, after 27...Ke7 28. Rxf7 Qxf7 Unzicker springs the surprise in-between-move (a.k.a. Zwischenzug or intermezzo) 29. Qxh6! Now if Tal tries to save his Rook with 29...Rb8?? (diagram below),


click for larger view

[After 29...Rb8??, White to mate-in-two (30. ?)]

he falls victim to an obvious two-move mate.

So Tal had to leave his Rook en prise (exposed to capture), enabling Unzicker to win a third decisive pawn after 29...Be5 30. Qxg5+ Kd6 31. Bxa8 . Tal made it even easier for Unzicker with 31...Qc7 (31...Qf6 puts up a bit more resistance but still loses), allowing the immediately decisive skewer combination 32. Qxe5+! Kxe5 33. Bf4+ .

This combination involves so many tactics (decoy, pin, deflection, clearance, double attack, in-between-move, mating threat, skewer) that I decided to put it into my combined operations collection.

P.S. My solution was the simpler clearance pseudo-sacrifice 24. Nxg5! Fritz 8 analyzes this win as follows:

24. Nxg5! Bd7 (24... Bxg5 25. Bxg5 Qxg5 26. Qxg5 hxg5 27. Bxc6+ ) 25. Be4! (an essential quiet move in this combination) 25...Bxg5 (25... Rg7 26. Rxf7 Rxf7 27. Qxg6 ) 26. Bxg6 Qxe3 27. Bxh7 (+1.94 @ 15 depth).

May-06-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  patzer2: <al wazir> I also looked at 24. Bxg5! as an interesting possibility. Black is winning per Fritz 8 after 24. Bxg5! Bd7! 25. h4! 0-0-0 26. Rd1 Qa5 27. g4! (+1.56 @ 14 depth). However, the play is complicated and finding winning moves like the odd looking 27. g4! (diagram below) would be difficult over the board.


click for larger view

[White (27. ?) to move and win after 24. Bxg5! Bd7! 25. h4! 0-0-0 26. Rd1 Qa5]

May-06-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  outplayer: Marvellous play by Unzicker crushing the attack King and perfect comments by <patzer2>. 29...Rb8?? 30.Bg5+ Qf6 31.Qf6#
May-06-06   TrueBlue: I almost got it. Only thing I missed was I expecting black to play 27.. Kf8, which might be a little stronger move, but still loosing few pawns.
May-06-06   TrueBlue: and 31 .. Qc7 not the best more :)
May-06-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  keypusher: Thanks <patzer2>. Here is a somewhat similar opening with Tal on the winning side.

Tal vs F Olafsson, 1961

May-06-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  patzer2: <TrueBlue> While 27... Kf8 28. Rxf7+ Qxf7 29. Qxh6+ Qg7 (29... Kg8 30. Bd4 Qh7 31. Qxg5+ Kf7 32. Qf6+ Kg8 33. Be4 ) 30. Qxg7+ Kxg7 31. Bxa8 is objectively better, the two pawn deficit endgame is still a clear win for White. I suspect Tal thought it was possible Unzicker would not find the amazing intermezzo 29. Qxh6!, and that he might have chances of swindling a draw against the likely second best alternative 29. Qxf7+ Kxf6 30. Bxa8 .
May-06-06   En prise: Very nice. Missed it completely. I thought 24.Nf6+ Bxf6 25.Bxc6+ winning the exchange immediately was the way to go. I guess that's why I'm here doing chess puzzles at home while Unzicker and Tal played it.
May-06-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  al wazir: <patzer2>: After 24. Bxg5, do you mean *white* is winning? (You give an evaluation of +1.56).
May-06-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  patzer2: <al wazir> Sorry, I did intend to say your 24. Bxg5! is winning for White with best play. Thanks for the correction!
May-06-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  kevin86: I can;t say that I solved it,but did see the sac at f7 and the potential fork at c6. In short,I saw a few scenes but could not act out the play.

I was surprized that Tal is on the receiving end this time.

May-06-06   EmperorAtahualpa: Excellent puzzle! Beautiful play by Unzicker. He "out-Talled" Tal!

I was only briefly looking at 24.Rxf7, but didn't see any winning combinations.

May-06-06   grook: <patzer2>: Thanks a lot for your analysis! I was wondering what the rationale behind 29...Be5 was, now I see clearly. In fact, one doesn't appreciate the beauty of this puzzle without knowing why Black played 29...Be5. Thanks a lot!
May-06-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  Honza Cervenka: Nice combo. I got it to the move 28 quite quickly (it was not so difficult as Black's moves were all forced) but I completely missed final blow 29.Qxh6!! Instead of that I would have traded happily the Queens and then drudged some other 30+ moves in engame of four Bishops with a Pawn up....:-/
May-06-06   tonsillolith: Nice play by Unzicker.

possible pun: Throw in the Tal

May-06-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  Timothy Glenn Forney: Missed this one,I thought Nf6+ was the best move. Looks like 27...Kf8 is better.
May-06-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  weisyschwarz: I figured 24. Rxf7, but knew Tal could easily equalize from that. I lack the depth to see the effects of combinations.
May-06-06   madlydeeply: holy smokes tal is on the losing end of a brilliancy. Go gettim ooonzy!!
May-06-06   Paintbucket: It took me a while, but I got it.
May-06-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  aazqua: I can't believe this is a Saturday puzzle. Is saturday supposed to be an easy day? r*p with the pin to win back material is obvious. The queen comes back to cover leaving the critical c pawn unprotected. Knight checks, b*p with a fork and white can simply trade down to an easily won endgame. Due to mating threats win can improve by taking an extra pawn. Tal must have been pretty frustrated at the end, but once again, Unzi somehow convinces a player who should know what he's doing to forego development and leave himself opened to be postered.
May-06-06   c o r e: While individual aspects of Unzicker's attack seemed obvious to me, the real brilliancy of today's puzzle was how the many simple machines of deflection, pin, and fork came together with such graceful coordination. I'm very glad to have my brain so pummeled by technique. I am now ready for monday. ;)
May-06-06   Fezzik: I agree with User: c o r e that 24.Rxf7 was fairly obvious, but Unzicker's technique was beautiful. This game was familiar to me and yet I still mis-timed some of his tactical shots. This week, chessgames.com has created a great tribute to Unizicker. Thank you very much!
May-06-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  jperr75108: Pretty easy once I saw the weakness on the h1-a8 diagonal.
May-06-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  LIFE Master AJ: I got the first few moves, but missed the clever 29.QxP/h6. (Dire threats to the BK ... so no time to save the Rook.)
Nov-01-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  aazqua: Nice game with an electrifying finish. You can see that black just leaves too much up in the air.
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