Sep-24-07
 |
| SwitchingQuylthulg: 15...Nxf2!? is just the beginning of a deep, brilliant and quite accurately conducted attack against White's weakly protected king. However, in a game like this there are just too many possibilities available and White might have been able to find a better defense somewhere. In particular, I wonder if Black has a win against the silicon suggestion of 25.Rc3:
click for larger view The brilliant winning method used in the game won't work then, and indeed I can't see anything better than perpetual for Black (25...Qxh3+ 26.Kg1 Bf4 is adequately defended by 27.Qxe3! Bh2+ and White escapes with a perpetual again). I'm not mad enough to try and analyse the position after 25...Qxh3+ 26.Kg1 Rxf3?! 27.Bxf3 Qxd2 28.Rxd2 with 2R+B vs. Q+4 passed pawns on kingside: 
click for larger viewThis, naturally, let me to wonder if Black couldn't have improved earlier, and my first idea was another bishop move, namely 24...Bxd4!. 
click for larger view Now 25.Rc3 is not available (25...Qh1+ 26.Kf2 Rxf3 is a picturesque mate) but the sacrifice can perhaps be accepted: 25.Qxd4 Qxe2+ 26.Kg1 Rxf3 27.Qh4
click for larger viewI felt Black could still win here, but I failed to find it myself. Crafty, however, is a much better analyst than me and its suggestion of 27...f4! seems to be the solution. After 28.Re1 Qd3 Black is winning, as Black threatens ...Rxh3+ and 29.Kh2 Qd2+ 30.Kh1 Rf2 forces White to give up his queen to stop disaster on his second rank. I'm too lazy to put enough human effort in to reach a full conclusion of all the variations present, but it seems to me that 24...Bh6 was the one inaccuracy in Sadler's attack and 24...Bxd4! was required to win. Someone with more energy and better software will probably prove me wrong... Unless I'm very much mistaken, this crazy game won a brilliancy prize in the Elista Olympiad. |
Nov-11-08
 |
| notyetagm: OH MY GOD! What a *brilliant* attack this is by GM Sadler. GM Franco in his GAMBIT book "Art of Attacking Chess", page 74: <In the opinion of the author, this is one of the most beautiful attacking games in chess history, despite the error on move 24. Once we get over the feeling of euphoria inspired by like 21 ... Rxf3+!!, 23 ... Qh2!!, 28 ... Re4!, etc. ...> |
sac: 15...Nxf2
