Alberic O'Kelly de Galway vs Paul Devos (1937)

Alberic O'Kelly de Galway vs Paul Devos
Belgium 1937 · English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense. King's Knight Variation (A15) · 0-1

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Jul-18-07		nikolaas: Since Devos and O'Kelly finished aqual in the Belgian championship of 1937 (with 7½/9, 1 point ahead of Dunkelblum), a play-off was needed. This game is the first of the play-off match and the only one that gained some fame. Although it wouldn't score high as a chess problem (because of capture and checks), the finish - starting from 21...Qxf2 - has a certain degree of elegance. O'Kelly won the second game while the third was a short draw. Both players shared the title. Note that, when this game was played, O'Kelly was still rather unknown although that very year his star began to shine brighter with every tournament he played. In the beginning of the year he had won a small fourway tournament in Brussels. He had also done quite well in the 1937 olimpiad, which was held right before the Belgian championship. As is well known his real breakthrough came after WWII.

Aug-12-07		tpstar: 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 c6 3. b3 g6 4. Bb2 Bg7 5. g3 0-0 6. Bg2 d5 <Double Fianchetto openings are notoriously slow. Here Black chooses a Grunfeld set-up with ... c6 & ... d5 which was also successful in R Forster vs O Dimakiling, 2006 & N Delgado vs R D'Arruda, 2005 although the overall results favor White Opening Explorer > 7. 0-0 Na6 8. d3 <[last book move]<>> Be6 9. Nbd2 Qc8 <Black wants to trade lsb with 10 ... Bh3> 10. Re1 Bh3 11. Bh1 h5 12. Rc1 <Threatening 13. Bxf6 Bxf6 14. cd winning a Pawn> Qf5 13. a3 Bh6 <Pins the Nd2 to the Rc1 while transferring the Bishop to an active diagonal> 14. b4 Ng4 15. cxd5 cxd5 16. b5 Nb8 17. Rc5 Ne3 <Knights on the 6th rank are always deadly> 18. Qb3 <18. fxe3? Bxe3#> Nd7 19. Rc7 e5 <[19 ... Rac8 20. Qc3 Nf6 21. Rc1 Rxc7 22. Qxc7 ]<>> 20. Qc3 <[20. d4!? Rfc8 21. Rxc8+ Rxc8 22. fxe3 ]<>> d4 21. Nxd4 <Big Finish> click for larger view 21 ... Qxf2+!! 22. Kxf2 Ng4+ 23. Kf3 e4+! <Decoy> 24. Kxe4 <24. Nxe4/dxe4 Nde5#> Ndf6+ 25. Kf3 Ne5+ 26. Kf2 Nfg4+ 27. Kg1 Be3# 0-1. click for larger view <[Fritz 7]<>>

Jun-26-08		apexin: stunning queen sac!

Jun-27-08		saintstephen11: Every move by white after the sac is forced too. Really amazing move. The game was over at that point.

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