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Victor Andreevich Vasiliev vs Alexander Tolush
"Snatching Victor from the Jaws of Defeat" (game of the day Jun-22-2008)
URS-ch sf Leningrad (1945), Leningrad URS, rd 9
Spanish Game: Morphy Defense. Mackenzie Variation (C77)  ·  0-1

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Jun-22-08  lentil: 22...Rxh2+ 23 Kg1!
Jun-22-08  matingthreat: <Trigonometrist> and worse.
Jun-22-08  Extremophile: crazy game...
Jun-22-08  Trigonometrist: <matingthreat>

And ,yeah very obvious and boring..

Jun-22-08  Manic: <lentil> 22...Rxh2+ 23.Kg1 Rxh6 24.Bxd5+ Nxd5

I'm not really convinced that 22...Rxh2 was better, though it is probably winning as <wouldpusher> notes. I think Tolush's continuation was more correct.

Jun-22-08  wanabe2000: I'm amazed that this game hasn't been noticed by the "community" before today. What a way to start my day! Just ignore the pun and play.
Jun-22-08  dylam: how about: 23. Rxe6!?
then:
23... Qxe6 24. Bxe6+ Kxe6 25. Qh3+ Rg4 26. f3 .
23... Rg6+ 24. Bxd5 Rh6 25. Rxa6+ Nxd5 26. Rxh6 with an unclear position (ofcourse 26... Rxa2?? is not good because of 27. Rh5 Ke6 28. Re1+ Kd6 29. Rd1 c6 30. c4 ).
Jun-22-08  MarkThornton: <dylam: how about: 23. Rxe6!? >

I think play then goes. 23...Rxf2+ 24. Bxd5 Rxf1+ 25. Kg2 Rg1+ 26. Kf3(or Kh3) Nxd5.

Jun-22-08  dylam: <MarkThornton: <dylam: how about: 23. Rxe6!? > I think play then goes. 23...Rxf2+ 24. Bxd5 Rxf1+ 25. Kg2 Rg1+ 26. Kf3(or Kh3) Nxd5.>

I dont know...
in your line, after 25... Rg1+ it goes like that:
26. Kf3 Nxd5 27. Re5 and now:
a) 27... Rf1+ 28. Ke2 Rf2+ 29. Ke1 Rd8 30. Qe6+ .
b) 27... Rd8 28. Qe6+ .
c) 27... c6 28. Qe6+ Kg7 29. Qd7+ Kg6 30. Re6+ Nf6 31. Qd3+ Kf7 32. Rxf6+ Kxf6 33. Qc3+ with an unclear position.

Jun-22-08  NewLine: <dylam>, I afraid I have some bad news. I couldn't find anything wrong with your line, so I fed it into my silicon and ... bang! It shoot me dead with this line:

<23.Rxe6?? Rg1+! 24.Kxg1 Rg8+>

Embarassing, Isn't it?
OK, it looks like everybody here are sleepy today, so I'll just keep it quiet...

Jun-22-08  whiteshark: <22...Rxh2+> would have been a great finalization.
Jun-23-08  kevin86: Black looked dead;the queen was pinned and white was on the prowl. It took a wicked crossfire attack to seize the day.
Jun-24-08  patzer2: Tolush's Queen pseudo sacrifice with 20. Qxd4!! is a brilliant winning stroke, which I believe he visualized one if not several moves earlier. He had to see that his Queen would be pinned and "lost" after 21. Bb3. However, he looked deeper to see that he would get three pieces and a pawn and a decisive attack for the "Queen sacrifice."

P.S. Tolush was Boris Spassky's tutor and a player who often preferred tactical solutions to positional play, so I can see where Spassky got some of his tactical brilliance.

May-01-20  Predrag3141: I'd love to see the whole game. Right now it ends on move 12 after 11 … Nf6, White resigns. Must be some kind of bug in the website that truncates the game.
May-01-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  Annie K.: Fixed! :)
Dec-22-23
Premium Chessgames Member
  takebackok: Thought i had it quick & easy, 22...Rxh2+ 23 Kxh2 now Ng4+ not good. So 23...Qxb3 24 Qxf6+ Kxf6 25 aXb3 Bf5 probably better for black, not winning.
Dec-22-23  mel gibson: Too tricky for me.

Stockfish 16 chooses a different ply:

22. .. Rxh2+

(22. .. Rxh2+ (1. ... Rxh2+ 2.Kxh2 Qxb3 3.Qxf6+ Kxf6 4.cxb3 Bd7 5.Rc1 Rh8+ 6.Kg3 Rh3+ 7.Kg2 Rh5 8.Rg1 Rf5 9.Rc3 Rxf2+ 10.Kg3 Rf5 11.Rgc1 Bd6+ 12.Kg2 Be6 13.R3c2 Bd5+ 14.Kg1 Ke6 15.Rd2 Bc6 ) +4.91/46 252)

score for Black +4.91 depth 46.

If I force SF to play the game ply it's stronger:

22. .. Be6

23. Bxd5 (23. Bxd5 (1.Bxd5 Bxd5 2.f3 Rag8 3.Qh3 R2g5 4.Rd1 b5 5.Rfe1 c6 6.a4 Bf2 7.Rf1 Be3 8.Rde1 Bb6 9.axb5 axb5 10.c3 Rh5 11.Qxh5+ Nxh5 12.Re5 Rh8 13.Rg5 Nf6 14.Rg2 Re8 15.Rg5 Re2 ) -5.96/44 253)

score for White -5.96 depth 44.

Dec-22-23
Premium Chessgames Member
  takebackok: Beautiful move 22...Be6!! once you see it threatens # in 3 with Rg1+ & Rg8+ & # shows again the power of rook on the 7th (2nd) rank. White is completely tied up Black Bs & pieces rule the board totally!
Dec-22-23
Premium Chessgames Member
  takebackok: After all black is up two pieces.
Dec-22-23
Premium Chessgames Member
  Teyss: ...Be6!! sacking the Queen for a overwhelming attack on the King, does it ring a bell (even if in a different configuration)? D Byrne vs Fischer, 1956
Dec-22-23
Premium Chessgames Member
  scormus: A bit like yesterday with a stunning first move which, again, I think is forced and involves giving up the Q. A fair bit of thought was needed to make as far as 25 ... R2g5. I wasn't sure after that, but B is in command and really only needs to keep a cool head. "Regaining" the Q with 26 ... Rh5?? (27 Qxh5 Nxh5 28 Rxd5) returns all the advantage, with interest, to W.

BTW, thinking about B's 25th, I hope one day to see R2d2 played ;)

Dec-22-23
Premium Chessgames Member
  chrisowen: I think my forces dug bet law its hup q v z its Be6 its ho arrive o its hog ebb cc etc uba fob aoh its jah its a fog pug abacus its black Be6 mack
Dec-22-23  Lambda: It's not forced, black also wins with 22...Rxh2+ 23.Kxh2 Qxb3! 24.Qxf6+ Kxf6 (white cannot get the queen out of the fork threat without also allowing the black queen to escape, so at least gets a piece for it)


click for larger view

which may look drawish at first glance with two bishops against rook and pawn, but the computer finds black actually develops the queenside and attacks the white king very quickly, and can win a rook for bishop with this attack.

Dec-22-23  Refused: Very, very nice ending. 22...Be6!!

That point is, that the white king never gets out of the box after 23.Bxd5 Bxd5 24.f3 Rag8!! (the key move you have to foresee in this line). Conceptionally that's very pleasing.

Having that said, I failed to realize ho badly the white king is boxed in and went with the more obvious 22...Rxh2+ 23.Kxh2 Qxb3 24.Qxf6+ Kxf6 25.axb3 line, which I felt should be winning as the bishop pair is quite potent on an open board and white's rooks have a hard time getting anywhere.

Dec-22-23
Premium Chessgames Member
  playground player: Way above my pay grade! One can only stand in awe.
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