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Gerald Abrahams vs J H Beaty
Whitby British ch 1962  ·  King's Indian Defense: Normal Variation. Rare Defenses (E90)  ·  1-0
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sac: 30.Qxh7+ PGN: download | view Help: general | java-troubleshooting

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing>
May-13-10  CHESSTTCAMPS: Material is even and white has the "bad" bishop, but the powerful configuration of majors on the g and h-files indicate a winning advantage for white. For the second day in a row, the candidate that occurred to me first is badly flawed. The routine removal of defender 30.Rxg6?? works well against 30... hxg6?? 31.Qh7+ Kf6 32.g5+ Kxg5 33.Qh4++, but less well against 30... Qxh4!

As I'm sure has been found by many others already, white should finish with 30.Qxh7+!! Bxh7 31.Rxh7+ Kf6 32.Rhg7! (32.Rgg7?? Rxf7 adequately defends the threat of 33.g5++) Qe8 33.Nxe8+ (Rxe8 34.R5g6++) Ke6 34.R5g6+ Rf6 35.Rxf6++ . Fortunately, we humans can still feel pleased with ourselves in finding such a combination, but I confess to being quite perturbed yesterday in losing a 1-1 blitz game to a Chessmaster personality (a ringer level advertised at U-1900) when it casually announced a "Mate in 11" with seconds left on the clock.

Time to check...

May-13-10  CHESSTTCAMPS: <Material is even...>

With apologies to a former colleague for paraphrasing his line, "There are three kinds of chessplayers, those who can count and those who can't."

May-13-10  CHESSTTCAMPS: Thanks to <Once> for pointing out that 32.Rgg7 is not so bad.
May-13-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  Crowaholic: That wasn't so hard, except for 32. Rhg7, which took me a while to spot, it's all checks and a forced mate in 5. Upon replaying the game, 23. ..Be8 struck me as a poor move. Wouldn't ..Qg6 have been more prudent? (Or ..h6 as Shredder suggests.)
May-13-10  rapidcitychess: Thursday
Medium
Candidate(s): Qxh7+
30.Qxh7+ Bxh7 31.Rxh7+ Kf6 32.Rhg7 With a death threat. He has no answer.
May-13-10  rapidcitychess: I was thinking: Did that Knight parachute down there?
May-13-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  Jimfromprovidence: As a side puzzle, try the queen sacrifice two moves earlier, 28 Qxh7+!?


click for larger view

Then, after 28...Bxh7 29 Rxh7+ Ke8, find the winning combination.


click for larger view

May-13-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  kevin86: A deft finish-the rooks round up the King like a pair of Celtics---
May-13-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  YouRang: Got it :-)

In thinking about that knight on c7 taking away e6 and e8 from the black king at f7, I realized that black is particularly vulnerable to a rook attack at h7.

So, I considered the queen sac: 30.Qxh7+! Bxh7 31.Rxh7+, which leaves the king with one square: 31...Kf6, which unfortunately for black, blocks his own queen's attack on Rg5.

This leaves 32.Rg7!, with the rooks guarding each other and threatening R5g6#, and there seems to be nothing that black can do about it.

May-13-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  Once: <Jimfromprovidence> In your puzzle, my heart said 30. Rgg7, my head said 30. d6 and my computer said 30. Ba5 (with d6 to follow).
May-13-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  Once: <CHESSTTCAMPS> This is Fritz's line: 32. Rgg7 Rxc7 (or 32...Qxc7 - everything else allows g5#) 33. dc


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And now there is nothing that black can do to prevent disaster. For example: 33...Qxc7 34. c5 bc 35. Bb3


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Now black can delay the end with time-wasting moves like c4 and Rf7, but in either case white snaffles the proferred material and returns to the mate with g5#

After 33. dc, Fritzie reckons that black's best (ie the only one that doesn't end in a fairly quick mate) is 33...Ke6 34. cxd8=Q. Incidentally, in the move <pawn takes queen = queen)> white briefly gains a net 17 points over black - surely some kind of record for a single move?

May-13-10  doubledrooks: It's mate after 30. Qxh7+ Bxh7 31. Rxh7+ Kf6 32. Rhg7 Qe8 33. Nxe8+ Ke6 34. Re7.
May-13-10  YetAnotherAmateur: <kevin86>As a resident of Cleveland, I humbly request that you don't rub it in.
May-13-10  VincentL: "Medium".

At first I wanted to Rg6, and even considered c5 - but these moves do not work.

Then I saw: 30. Qh7+ Bxh7 31. Rxh7+ Kf6 (only move). At first I thought 32. Rf5 would be mate but of course it isn't, so 32. Rhg7 ! Now the only way black can stop 33. R5g6 mate is with 32....Qe8. After 33. Nxe8+ Rxe8 we finally arrive at 34. R5g6 mate.

I assume this is it... let's check.

May-13-10  VincentL: I missed the line given by <dzechiel> in which black plays 33.... Ke6 and white emerges a rook and bishop up after exchanges.
May-13-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  A Karpov Fan: didn't get it. how depressing :-(
May-13-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  David2009: G Abrahams vs J H Beaty, 1962 White 30?

I have been comng to these puzzles late the last few days which helps(?) explain a string of mistakes (excuses, excuses but that't my story and I'm sticking to it) Today looks like an old-fashioned King hunt starting 30 Rxg6. Black can't very well bail out with 30...Rxc7 since he ends a whole Rook down. Accepting by 30...hxg7 results in mate by 31 Qh7+ Kf6 32 g5+ Kxg5 33 Qh4#. This leaves only Kxg6 which leaves g6 unobstructed, but it is still mate after 31 Qxh7+ Kf6 32 Rh6+ Kg5 33 Rh5+ Kf6 34 Qf5+ Kg7 (or ...Ke7; 35 Qe6#) 35 Rh7+ Kg8 36 Qg6#. Time to check. ======
The game ended differently! Have I yet again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory?


click for larger view

The short answer is YES- 34...QxQ 0-1

May-13-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  wals: Rybka 3 1-cpu: 3071mb hash: depth 13:

Cracks started to appear in Black's game:-

+1.14 20...Qd6. available, h6 +0.61, Kg7 +0.62, Raa8 +0.73, h5 +0.75.

+2.55 23...Be8. available, Qg6 +1.42, h6 +1.16, Qf6 +1.22.

then things really go downhill.

+3.59 25...Kf7. best Qf6, +2.69.

+7.86 27...Nd7. best Rg8, +3.80.

+(#6) 29...Ra7. best Rh8, +7.48.

May-13-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  Jimfromprovidence: Earlier, I offered:

“As a side puzzle, try the queen sacrifice two moves earlier, 28 Qxh7+!?. Then, after 28...Bxh7 29 Rxh7+ Ke8, find the winning combination”.

<Once> <In your puzzle, my heart said 30. Rgg7, my head said 30. d6 and my computer said 30. Ba5 (with d6 to follow)>.

You have the right first move, 30 Ba4, below, and a viable second move, but you did not describe the threat, so only partial credit for you.


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The threat is 31 Rxe7+, which at first look seems manageable to guard against, until you notice that black’s knight is pinned, because of the double threat Nxc7++.

So, if black follows with 30…Qc8 to give his king an escape square, then white wins with 31 d6 cxd6 32 Nxd6+.


click for larger view

The most elegant winning combo comes after 30…Qxg5 31 Nxc7+ Kd8 32 Ne6+.


click for larger view

May-13-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  turbo231: Missed it, what's depressing is after I saw the game played I thought why did he resign. It took me a good minute to see that black couldn't do anything and was one move from being mated. I saw the first 2 moves then darkness set in.
May-13-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  ZUGZWANG67: W's a pawn up and the BK is exposed. W has enough pieces pointing towards the BK for a mating attack to be successful. 30.Qxh7+ Bxh7 31.Rxh7 Kf6 32.Rhg7 and mate to follow. The kind of quiet move that used to give me trouble solving, especially when the move is a couple of tempi ahead.

Time to check...

**************

That was it!

May-13-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  Orome: I found c5 quickly and didn't look any further since that looked pretty good to me. Should be winning as well, right?
May-13-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  turbo231: < Orome > I'm down with c5 looks good to me.

< ZUGZZWANG67 > Showoff

May-13-10  ZorinNighthawk: My thoughts were 30.Qxh7+ Bxh7 31.Rh7+ Kf6 32.Rf5++? Doh , that was wrong ... missed it by a move.

Seems to me black started going wrong around move 17...Ra6 that wasn't real bad but i think it lost a tempo. I felt 20...Qd6? was when things really fell apart. Why not Nb7 then? To keep the defense of the g5 pawn and pressure on the d8,h4 diagonal.

28...c6? Wouldn't ...dxc6 29.Nxd6 Ke6 be better? Where i'm not seeing a way for white to continue his attack.

Another one I didn't look at to hard 27... Nd7? I was thinking Nb7 was a better try.

Pretty easy to point out mistakes after the fact ... i'm sure either one of these guys would annihilate me. =)

May-14-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  Once: <Jimfromprovidence> From your position, white wins with any of the three moves I suggested. All eval over +4.3.

<bristles at only getting partial credit> :-)

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