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John van der Wiel vs Rafael Vaganian
"Cowabunga!" (game of the day Feb-11-2012)
Ter Apel (1993), Ter Apel NED, rd 1, Mar-29
Alekhine Defense: Four Pawns Attack. Main Line (B03)  ·  0-1

ANALYSIS [x]

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Kibitzer's Corner
Sep-21-04  Rowson: f5! is coming.
Nov-12-05  DeepBlade: en passant capturing fixes the f5
Nov-12-05  radu stancu: Yeah, but capturing en passant will open the e file for black's f rook. Notice that defending against f5 with Rg5 runs into Qxf4#. White's best move seems to be Kf5 but even that one won't save him after 28. Ne7+ Kg5 29. Rxe5+ Kh4 30. Nf5+ Kg3 31. Re6
Nov-12-05  Saruman: <radu stancu> 28.Ne7+ Kg5 29.Rxe5+ 29.Kh4 <Qf2+> 30.Rg3 Nf5+ 31.Kh3 (Kg4 Ne3+ wins the Q) Nxg3 32.fxe5 Qxf3 .
Jul-25-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  plang: This one definitely belongs in the Alekhines Defense Hall of Fame. It is too bad the Four Pawns Attack isn't played anymore. It sure leads to wild games. ..20 b5 is a nice deflection sacrifice.
May-13-09  PBE6: I just got a copy of John Nunn's "Understanding Chess Move By Move", and as the title suggests, it present a great detailed description of this game "move by move". Nunn considers 12. f4? to be too ambitious, with white seeking to reinforce the e-pawn and push his d-pawn but at the expense of king safety. He considers 12. Qd2 followed by 13. 0-0-0 to be much more solid.

He also considers black's follow-up, 12. ... Rd8! to be an excellent alternative to the natural 12. ... 0-0-0, as it avoids a bishop pin after 12. ... 0-0-0 13. c5 Nd5 14. Nxd5 Qxd5 15. Bf3 Qd7 16. d5. Now black can't play 16. ... exd6 as it leaves his queen and king skewered after 17. Bg4.

Great game by Vaganian!

Apr-08-11  lost in space: I tried to play the Aljechin defense in the late 1980tie and lost more or less each and every game. Nice game to see and learn how it should be played.
Feb-11-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: Bummer, Dude. Like, only Bronstein could hit the waves like that and not wipe out.

Bronstein vs Ljubojevic, 1973

Feb-11-12  xthred: I don't get it. Can't white play 28. Rd1 or Qe2?
Feb-11-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: <xthred> After <28.Rd1>:


click for larger view

Black plays <28...f5+>. White has no choice but <29.exf6> (en passant) and Black replies <29...Re8#>. The same idea works against 28.Qe2.

It's a very unusual finish, with the en passant capture opening up the fifth rank for Black's rook on d5.

Feb-11-12  xthred: <Phony Benoni> Thanks!
Feb-11-12  Once: IIRC "cowabunga" was the catchphrase of the teenage mutant ninja turtles. Or maybe it was just the catchphrase of one of them?

If you want to know more - or just to wallow in nostalgia - here is the surprisingly comprehensive wiki article written by someone who really should get out more...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenag...

Note to the author - those boys with lumpy shirts are called girls. Why not say hello to them (as long you don't talk about turtles living in the New York sewer and eating pizza)?

As a sidenote: the British Broadcasting Corporation, in their immense wisdom, decided that it was far too risky to expose British youngsters to these subversive and violent themes. So when we got the turtles, they had to be renamed "teenage mutant <hero> turtles".

As if that made it okay to mess around with katanas...

Not quite sure what all this has to do with the game. There's something rather wonderful about watching a big centre being demolished. or in this case, the big centre wasn't demolished. Instead, white was killed inside his big centre, like a turtle being murdered inside his shell by someone shoving pointy sticks through his leg 'oles. Gruesome.

Aha! So maybe that's why the pun?

Feb-11-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: <Once> I thought "Cowabunga" referred to the cry of battle shouted by sun-bleached California surfers as they defied death to ride the Giant Killer Wave. You know, sort of what the White king does here.
Feb-11-12  Once: http://www.urbandictionary.com/defi...

Or even Chief Thunderthud on the Howdy Doody Show (before my time).

So we've got turtles, surfers and native americans (as we now must call them). Any other suggestions?

Feb-11-12  Badmojo: one of the ninja turtles was named rafeal i think, hence the pun.
Feb-11-12  Julian713: <<Once:>If you want to know more - or just to wallow in nostalgia - here is the surprisingly comprehensive wiki article written by someone who really should get out more...>

It's a nerdy-ish pop culture item from the late 80's...pretty much guarantees that it's going to have an extensive Wikipedia entry :D

Feb-11-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: A Russian, a Dutchman and a surfer dude phrase. What's the connection?
Feb-11-12  Ratt Boy: Good catch, badMojo. It's got to be a Turtles reference. They were all named for Renaissance painters: Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Rafael. That's more obscure than most GOTD titles, but an occasional obscurity is healthy.
Feb-11-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  Penguincw: This isn't the first time I come across with a pun I don't get. :(
Feb-11-12  Knight13: <Good catch, badMojo. It's got to be a Turtles reference. They were all named for Renaissance painters: Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Rafael. That's more obscure than most GOTD titles, but an occasional obscurity is healthy.> Not all of them were just painters. For example, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were also engineers and sculptors (but da Vinci was also an inventor and scientist; Michelangelo, a poet as well). Donatello was also a sculptor. Michelangelo was da Vinci's archrival; they fought psychological warfare against each other, attacking each other's works and whatnot. Da Vinci ended up being more famous and well-known to the general public, but Michelangelo's painting of the Sistine Chapel, comissioned by Pope Julius II, sure was very beautiful. Rafael got his first commissioned painting at age seventeen --- an altarpiece for the church of Sant'Agostino in Citta di Castello. Donatello was one of the people who revived the "contrapposto" style of painting and sculpting from antiquity, which contrasted the hip and shoulder axes of their figures to create an illusion of bodily movement. By the way, check out da Vinci's <Notebooks>. :-)
Feb-11-12  capanegra: 11…Qd7 was apparently the novelty here. In Eales and Williams' "Alekhine’s Defense", only the move 11…Qh4+ is analyzed, and in the chess opening explorer this is the only game with 11...Qd7 (11…Qh4+ appears in 28 games).

With Qd7 and Rd8, Vaganian pressures on d4. At first sight it looks that after 13.d5 White gains huge territorial predominance, but 13…Bb4! dismantles his plans (14…dxc6? is not possible because of Qxc6 touching the simultaneously White's Queen and Rook).

Vaganian won following the philosophy of the Alekine Defense for Black: provoke a too far advance of White's Pawns for keeping them safe, and counterattack from the flanks.

Nice and instructive game.

Feb-12-12  SuperPatzer77: See diagram below:


click for larger view

White resigns because Black threatens 28...f5+, 29. exf6 (forced - en passant) Re8#. So, White has the three other tries below:

a) 28. Qxc6 Qd3#

b) 28. Rg5 Qf4#

c) 28. Qxd5 (only move) cxd5+, 29. Kf5 Qd3+, 30. Kg5 h6+, 31. Kh5 Qxf3 (threatening Qh3+ forcing mate), 32. h3 (forced) Qxh1 (threatening Qxh3+ forcing mate), 33. Rg3 Qd1+, 34. Rg4 Qf3 (threatening Qxh3+ again), 35. h4 Nxf4# 0-1

What an excellent game by Rafael Vaganian

SuperPatzer77

Feb-12-12  SuperPatzer77: Addition to my previous analysis (I almost forgot White's another try - 28. f5)

White has another try after 27...Rd5! - see below:

28. f5 Rxe5# 0-1 - Black moves his rook to d5 to set up the mating net.

SuperPatzer77

Feb-13-12  kevin86: TMNT was not my speed-I was more of a Turtle guy-you know with Entourage.
Feb-14-12  SuperPatzer77: See diagram below: White to move


click for larger view

28. Be2 (best) Rc5!!! (deflection), 29. Qxc5 f5+! below:

a) 30. exf6 (e.p) Qxe2+, 31. Kf5 Qd3+, 32. Kg5 h6+, 33. Kh5 Qh3+ 34. Kxg6 (34. Rh4 Nxf4#) Rxf6# 0-1

b) 30. Kf3 fxg4+, 31. Kg2* (31. Kxg4 Qxf4+, 32. Kh3 Qh4+, 33. Kg2 Qg5+, 34. Kh3 Nf4#) Qxe2+, 32. Qf2 Nxf4+!, 33. Kg3 Nh5+

*Note: Instead of 31. Kg2, 31. Kf2 Rxf4+, 32. Kg3 Qxe2

Those analyses are shown by Fritz 5.

SuperPatzer77

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