| Aug-16-09 | | hellopolgar: nice win, black under estimated the old warrior and got served. |
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Aug-17-09
 | | An Englishman: Good Evening: Korchnoi is like an old Great White Shark--no matter how many teeth he's lost, there's always another row to take their place. |
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| Aug-17-09 | | Ulhumbrus: 12...exd4 concedes an advantage in space to White as well as a backward d6 pawn. It has worked in the past because of all the combinatorial distractions which have prevented White from organizing an attack on Black's backward d6 pawn, as Bronstein explains in his famous book on the Zurich 1953 tournament. However Black has needed to retain his KB for this purpose. 13...Ndc5? looks like a very serious positional mistake, relinquishing Black's KB and with it Black's ability to employ combinations to devalue White's advantages. 13...Ne5 preserves Black's KB, and is very likely the right move. 17...Qb4 may be the last mistake. On 17...Be6 White can't take the d6 pawn because after 18 Qxd6?? Rad8 supports the move ....Nd3 attacking White's pinned R on f2. After 17...Qb4 18 Nxc5 dxc5 White enjoys an unopposed King side pawn majority as in the game Petrosian vs Larsen, 1960 , one of the games which P H Clarke has included in his book on Petrosian. |
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Aug-17-09
 | | diagonal: Victor took his revenge on Williams!
The now 78 years-old fox came to the Howard Staunton Memorial 2009 as the reigning Swiss Champion (Korchnoi won this title just a couple of weeks ago, and is believed to be the oldest player ever to win a national championship), but apparentely lost in the mentioned Championship, played as an Open (swiss system) against GM Simon Williams. Williams defeated Korchnoi in that event in a sharp King's Indian Defence, so, pretty sure, Korchnoi now was burning with ambitions of revenge...... |
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| Aug-19-09 | | areknames: Great victory by Korchnoi, who beats a GM almost 50 (!!) years his junior with a magnificient display of resilience. Very solid play coupled with some nice tactics. |
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| Aug-19-09 | | euripides: <13...Ndc5? looks like a very serious positional mistake, relinquishing Black's KB and with it Black's ability to employ combinations to devalue White's advantages.> Black is aiming to saddle White with a bad bishop and he does achieve good black-square control. I would have thought Black was better at move 23, though it's true that the kingside pawn advance is a threat and the position is very sharp. One line that illustrates Black's play, though there are doubtless improvements, is 23...Qb6 24.f4 Nb4 25.f5(Bb1 Nd3) Nxc2 26.Rxc2 Qxb3 27.f6 Kf8. |
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Sep-14-09
 | | Jimfromprovidence: Move 44 for white is the LA Times puzzle for September 13th. Too bad it was overlooked, because it is a sparkling play.
click for larger view44 f6+! wins right away.
Now, if either 44…Kg8 or Kh8, then 45 Rf5! If 44…Kf8, 45 Qf2! |
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| Sep-14-09 | | sfeuler: <Jimfromprovidence> Help me out here, after 44.f6+ 45.Kf8 Qf2 then 46.Qd6 - How does White continue? |
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Sep-14-09
| | Jimfromprovidence: <sfeuler> <Help me out here, after 44.f6+ 45.Kf8 Qf2 then 46.Qd6 - How does White continue?> After 44 f6+ Kf8 45 Qf2 Qd6, he continues with 46 Rc8+. 46...Rd8 is forced, then another cool move follows, 47 Qc5. 
click for larger view47...Kf8 is forced, (because if 47... Qxc5, then 48 Rxd8#. If 47...Rxc8, then 48 Qxc8+, with mate next move). Now, 48 Qxd6 is decisive. 
click for larger view |
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| Sep-15-09 | | sfeuler: Thanks <Jimfromprovidence>, I completely missed 47.Qc5! Was looking to try to get a check in at e6 to spoil Whites plans! |
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Kibitzing