Viswanathan Anand vs Peter Leko (2009)

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Viswanathan Anand vs Peter Leko
Amber Tournament (Blindfold) (2009) (blindfold), Nice FRA, rd 1, Mar-14
Spanish Game: Morphy Defense. Breyer Defense Zaitsev Hybrid (C95) · 1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

Given 32 times; par: 27 [what's this?]

explore this opening	find similar games	91 more Anand/Leko games
sac: 35.Bxf7+	PGN: download \| view \| print	Help: general \| java-troubleshooting

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< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 2 OF 2 · Later Kibitzing>
Mar-14-09		VaselineTopLove: Eyal you forgot the Anand Vs. Morozevich game from Mexico 2007 World Championship, although there's no direct Queen sacrifice there.

Mar-14-09		SwitchingQuylthulg: For a genuine World Champ level example of this pattern, see Alekhine vs Euwe, 1937 - where it wasn't played.

Mar-14-09		Woody Wood Pusher: Leko misses the standard attack, but it is blindfold... ANYTHING can happen!

Mar-14-09		Marmot PFL: It looked like Anand had prepared for this since about move 30. Blindfold players and those who give simuls or give odds for money depend on tricks like this.

Mar-14-09		AuN1: standard fare.

Mar-14-09		arnaud1959: 33.Bxf7+ Rxf7 34.Nxc8 or 33.Nxf7 Rxf7 34.Qd8+ seem both to win at least a pawn but I think Anand preferred keeping the pressure on f7.

Mar-14-09		Eyal: Apparently Leko chose a bad timing to open the center with 21...d5 - after 24.c4 followed by 25.c5 (leaving the bishop on b7 out of the game) Anand already had a clear advantage.

Mar-15-09		ganstaman: <Eyal: As was pointed out on the main tournament page during the game, the final combination is almost identical to the one in the famous Petrosian vs Spassky, 1966. In general, the tactical pattern of Qh8+/Nxf7+ (or Qh1+/Nxf2+) is worth memorizing> I got to play that pattern once in a game on gameknot. I hadn't seen it before, so I had to check several times to make sure I wasn't missing anything (had I previously seen it, I would have probably found it quicker and been more sure that it works out). click for larger view 16. Bxf7+ Rxf7 17. Qh8+ Kxh8 18. Nxf7+ Kg7 19. Nxd8 Bxf1 20. Kxf1 and I later won another pawn and the game, though winning the pawn here may have been enough on its own. Point is, this pattern really can show up in your games, and had my opponent known about it, he likely wouldn't have lost by play 15...Be4-d3.

Mar-16-09		sharkbenjamin: Dear Eyal: How did you do the research to get these sacrificial combinations that are related? <This is really good>.

Mar-16-09		DarthStapler: If a blindfolded grandmaster were to play against a non-blindfolded grandmaster, assuming their strength was roughly equal, would the blindfolded GM have any chance at all?

Mar-16-09		Eyal: <sharkbenjamin> Hi - this is quite simple, really, providing you're a premium member and can use the Sacrifice Explorer.

Mar-16-09		KingG: <notyetagm> is going to love this game.

Mar-17-09		M.D. Wilson: Ala Spassky.

Mar-17-09		notyetagm: Anand vs Leko, 2009 <Eyal: As was pointed out on the main tournament page during the game, the final combination is almost identical to the one in the famous Petrosian vs Spassky, 1966. In general, the tactical pattern of Qh8+/Nxf7+ (or Qh1+/Nxf2+) is worth memorizing - here are some examples of its more "minimalist" version, where the queen check on h8/h1 leads "only" to winning a pawn and clearing the queens off the board (note that the forked queen can be on different squares - d6/d3, e5/e4, g5/g4 or d8/d1): Matulovic vs Tsvetkov, 1965 G Agzamov vs Chekhov, 1985 Sveshnikov vs Dreev, 1993 R Vera vs M Ripari, 2001 D Valerga vs C Lujan, 2004 S Kosmo vs P Tregubov, 2006 G Welling vs P Wells, 2007 A Deviatkin vs A Klimov, 2008> <Eyal> Did you use Chessbase 10 to do this search?

Mar-17-09		Eyal: <notyetagm> No - as I already mentioned, I used the Sacrifice Explorer (searching for Qh8+/Qh1+ sacrifices, and then checking the games that came up - not so many - for the Nxf7+/Nxf2+ follow-up). Btw, I also searched for symmetrical Qa8/a1 - Nc7/c2 patterns, but interestingly didn't find any.

Mar-17-09		notyetagm: <Eyal: <notyetagm> No - as I already mentioned, I used the <<<Sacrifice Explorer>>>> Thanks. You could probably find hundreds of examples with Chessbase 10 and a million+ game collection like Mega Database.

Mar-17-09		KingG: A million? I doubt there have been that many in published games.

Mar-17-09		notyetagm: <KingG: A million? I doubt there have been that many in published games.> Just off the top of my head I know of another example that Alekhine and Euwe both missed that would have won a pawn in one of their WC matches. And yes, these commercial game databases do contain millions of games.

Mar-17-09		notyetagm: Game Collection: Look out for undefended pieces! Tactical targets Anand vs Leko, 2009 34 ... Qe7-g5? undef Black g5-queen gives White d6-knight an f7-tactical base

Mar-17-09		KingG: <notyetagm> I'm really sorry, I completely misread your last post and somehow though you were saying there were a million+ games just on this queen sac theme! Clearly it is ridiculous to think you would say such a thing, and your post is in no way ambiguous anyway. I must have mentally inserted <a million+ game<s> <in> a game collection like Mega Database>. My apologies, I blame lack of sleep. :-)

Mar-19-09		notyetagm: <KingG: <notyetagm> I'm really sorry, I completely misread your last post and somehow though you were saying there were a million+ games just on this queen sac theme! Clearly it is ridiculous to think you would say such a thing, and your post is in no way ambiguous anyway. I must have mentally inserted <a million+ game<s> <in> a game collection like Mega Database>. My apologies, I blame lack of sleep. :-)> No problemo, mon ami. :-)

Oct-25-09		VaselineTopLove: LoL, Leko played 34...Qg5 probably with the intention of playing Bxh3, hoping that Anand would play gxh3 and then Ne2+ (double check) forking the white king and queen but Anand pulled off the knight tactic before Leko could.

Nov-26-13		kamalakanta: Another famous example is from one of Petrosian's games, 10 years before the WC game with Spassky... Petrosian vs Simagin, 1956

Mar-21-15		Eyal: In a (fascinating) recent interview, Anand mentioned the final combination in this game together with the parallel positions from Alekhine vs Euwe, 1937 & Petrosian vs Spassky, 1966 as an example of the importance of memory and pattern recognition: https://chess24.com/en/read/news/an...

Mar-24-15		Stonehenge: See also Morozevich vs A Giri, 2012. Moro missed 33. Qh6+

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