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Ortvin Sarapu vs Jonathan Sarfati
North Island Championship (1985), Havelock North NZL, rd 7, May-24
Spanish Game: Morphy Defense. Tarrasch Variation (C77)  ·  0-1

ANALYSIS [x]

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Kibitzer's Corner
Nov-16-06  Xeeniner: 31 could be a puzzle.
Dec-23-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  Jonathan Sarfati: Thanx. 32 ... Rxg2 was quicker but it hardly matters. Some annotators claimed 28...Bh2 was better but the game line was at least as good IMO.

It was ironic that Sarapu, a great admirer of his fellow Estonian Keres, was caught in one of his lines -- cf. G A Thomas vs Keres, 1937

Jan-20-08  Jonathan Adams: Jono, this was a terrific victory. 31...Rd1+ was indeed a killer. Ortvin's opening play was unusally weak and you exploited it marvellously.
Jan-20-08  Benzol: <Jonathan Adams> Is this you?

Jonathan Adams

Jan-21-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Jonathan Sarfati: <Benzol>, you got the right guy. Of course, he won (and wins) plenty of games despite the small sample on this site.
Jan-21-08  Benzol: <Jonathan Sarfati> <<Benzol>, you got the right guy.>

Thanks Jonathan. I played a J Adams in the mid 70's but I never found out if his first name was Jonathan though. Could be the same player. Wonder if he ever remembers playing me in Auckland some thirty odd years ago?

May-03-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  Jonathan Sarfati: More from the Computer Sees Everything files:

16...♕d7, missed by all annotators, threatens to win the ♘h4 with ... g5. 17. g4 to support a flight square on f5 is beaten quickly with h5.

Arcadios Feneridis suggested 19.♘e2 h4 20.d4 exd3 21.cxd3 on the grounds that it helps White develop, and maybe exchange ♕s on the c-file. But it wouldn't help after 21... g4, e.g. 22.♕c2 (22.hxg4 h3) 22...gxh3 23.d4 ♖h5 24.dxc5 ♖xc5 25.♘c3 h2+ 26.♔h1 h3 27.f3 ♘h5 28.♘f1 ♘g3+ 29.♘xg3 ♕xg3 30.♗e3 ♖g8

23... ♗a7 was good enough, over -3 evaluation, but even stronger and missed by me and all annotators was:

23...♖xg2+ 24.♔xg2
(24.♘xg2 ♘g4)
24...♖g8+ 25.♔h1 ♕g3 26.♘fg4 ♘xg4 27.♕g2 ♕xh4+ 28.♔g1 ♘h6

Zygmunt Frankel and Murray Chandler both suggested 28...♗h2 as stronger. Indeed it does have the highest engine evaluation of -10, e.g. 29.♔e1 ♕xg1+ 30.♕f1 ♘xe3 31.dxe3 ♖xg2 32.♖xg2 ♖d1+ 33.♔xd1 ♕xf1+

But I had already worked out that the game move 28... ♘f4 was a clear cut win. Indeed the engine evaluation is -7.

32...♖xg2 was mate in 6. No matter; I could see that the game move 32...♕xg2+ would win a whole ♕. The engine calculates mate in 9. I missed 32...♖xg2, as did all the annotators, I suspect because we weren't looking for it after seeing that 32...♕xg2+ won quickly. Same principle with missing 28...♗h2 because 28... ♘f4 was good enough.

But I admit that 23...♖xg2+ would have been a nice way to finish.

May-05-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  Jonathan Sarfati: PS: there was a note by Zyg on p. 136 of the same issue:

"Feneridis and I looked at again at his 19 ♘e2 and have reached the following rather unsatisfactory conclusion:

After 19... h4 20 d4 g4 21 hxg3 h3 22 ♘g3 ♖xd4 the position still looks won for White [sic]. Even after 19 ♘e2! h4 20.d4 exd3 21 cxd3 it is still difficult to find a satisfactory defence and this applies even if White manages to exchange queens. Black's position is too superior at this stage. However the point that 19 ♘e2 poses more problems for White and provides better defensive chances than 19 ♕e2 still appears to be valid. Ed."

Actually, the engine evaluates 19.♕e2 and 19.♘e2 about the same. It recommends 19.b4 to minimize disadvantage (~ -1).

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