Matthias Wahls vs Saevar Bjarnason (1985) Back Against the Wahls

Members · Prefs · Laboratory · Collections · Openings · Endgames · Sacrifices · History · Search Kibitzing · Kibitzer's Café · Chessforums · Tournament Index · Players ·

Kibitzing

Matthias Wahls vs Saevar Bjarnason
"Back Against the Wahls" (game of the day Aug-10-2015)
Malmo (1985), Malmo SWE, rd 6
Spanish Game: Exchange. Bronstein Variation (C69) · 1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

explore this opening	find similar games	623 more games of M Wahls
sac: 18.Ra8+	PGN: download \| view \| print	Help: general \| java-troubleshooting

TIP: Some games have photographs. These are denoted in the game list with the

icon.

For help with this chess viewer, please see the Olga Chess Viewer Quickstart Guide.

PREMIUM MEMBERS CAN REQUEST COMPUTER ANALYSIS [more info]

< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 3 OF 3 · Later Kibitzing>
Oct-25-22		Brenin: The tempting 20 Nc6+ followed by 21 Qa7+ fails to 20 ... Qxc6, so reverse the order: 20 Qa7+ Kxa7 (20 ... Kc8 21 Qa8 mate) 21 Nc6+ Ka8 or Ka6 22 Ra1+ with mate to follow.

Oct-25-22		takebackok: Queen sack Tues,

Oct-25-22		Brenin: As in yesterday's POTD, this beautiful combination starts a couple of moves earlier, with 18 Ra8+.

Oct-25-22		jrredfield: Like Brenin I also looked briefly at Nc6+, but after 21 Qa7+, White's initial threat leads to nowhere and Black can now dominate. Any move other than the text move loses quickly for White since Black is so far ahead in material. So White's salvation can only be 20 Qa7+ which leads to a mate in 5. 20.♕a7+ ♔xa7 21.♘c6+ ♔a6 22.♖a1+ ♗a2 23.♖xa2+ ♗a3 24.♖xa3+

Oct-25-22		Mayankk: After briefly trying to make Nc6+ or Nxe6 work, I saw that the Black King always escapes by the d7 square, vacated by its Queen. I then spotted the beautiful Qa7+ sac and the power of double check via Nc6+. Definitely a thing of beauty.

Oct-25-22		TheaN: <20.Qa7+! Kxa7 (Kc8 21.Qa8#) 21.Nc6+ Ka6 (Ka8 similar) 22.Ra1+ Ba2 23.Rxa2+ Ba3 24.Rxa3#> Gorgeous.

Oct-25-22		Cheapo by the Dozen: Monday-easy. And <Mayankk> already made the key point about move order. Fortunately, Black has no useful interpositions along the a-file.

Oct-25-22		mel gibson: Dear oh dear - I missed that. I should have looked longer. Stockfish 15 says mate in 5: 20. Qa7+ (20. Qa7+ (♕a1-a7+ ♔b8xa7 ♘d4-c6+ ♔a7-a6 ♖f1-a1+ ♗e6-a2 ♖a1xa2+ ♗d6-a3 ♖a2xa3+) +M5/245 8) White wins _ mate in 5.

Oct-25-22		agb2002: White has a knight for a rook, a bishop and a pawn. The limited mobility of the black king, the open a-file and the convergence of queen, bishop and knight on a7 lead to 20.Qa7+ Kxa7 (20... Kc8 21.Qa8#) 21.Nc6+ Ka6(8) 22.Ra1+ and mate in two.

Oct-25-22		saturn2: Black has a rook but white the a file. 20.Qa7 followed by a double check Nc6 keads to mate. After 20.Nxe6 Qxe6 or 20.Nc6 the black king would escape.

Oct-25-22		lentil: The B pawn/b5 enables the mate by occupying the only unattacked square after (20 Qa7+ Kxa7 21 Nc6+ Ka6 22 Ra1+ ... The BK cannot escape to b5!

Oct-25-22		nalinw: I am glad I have <mel gibson> for company .... simply didnt see the power of Qa7+

Oct-25-22		perfidious: Clever variant on a familiar theme.

Oct-25-22		AlicesKnight: Found Qa7+ and the main line after a few moments; the double check is vital to avoid Black's Q creating space (as <Mayankk> indicated and others have seen). Starting from move 18 is even better.

Oct-25-22		cocker: 0/2 this week.

Oct-25-22		Dohboy: I saw the Queen and Bishop connecting on a7, so I thought that it was a free move for the Knight, such as NxBe6, but then I played back a couple moves and realized that he had just sacrificed an entire Rook to achieve this position, so I knew that wasn't it.

Oct-25-22		TheBish: <agb2002: White has a knight for a rook, a bishop and a pawn...> I know you're a mathematician. Doesn't that reduce down to White being down a rook and pawn? Or are you considering the bishop to be worth considerably more than the knight? If the latter, thank you! ;⁠-⁠)

Oct-25-22		scormus: Took me a long time to get this one, after looking at all possibilities starting with an N(d4) move. In the end I had to resort to the Holmes method to see that it was a Poe problem. The answer was there all the time, hiding in plain sight

Oct-25-22		TheBish: On a serious note, this was easy for me because I remember the position before White's 18th from a free tactics app (Chess Tactic Puzzles) I have on my phone. I highly recommend it. It assigns you a rating based on performance but take it with a grain of salt because it repeats puzzles often, sometimes two or three puzzles after you just saw it! Fun to get a GM rating, right? But puzzles get quite challenging as you climb the ladder. I believe that position (18.?) is also in the CT-ART 4.0 app (also on my phone). That app has a whole section on attraction (decoy) sacrifices, and the preliminary rook sac to set up a queen check, and even a subsequent queen sac to set up a double check and ensuing mate, as in this case, is a common theme.

Oct-25-22		paulalbert: Nice: easy but with very instructive themes. A move which makes Nc6 a double check is the key, so Qa7ch and later bring the not yet useful R(f1) over to the now available a1. Posthumous medal of honor to the queen for her sacrifice for the good of her army!

Oct-25-22		TheaN: < TheBish: <agb2002: White has a knight for a rook, a bishop and a pawn...> I know you're a mathematician. Doesn't that reduce down to White being down a rook and pawn? Or are you considering the bishop to be worth considerably more than the knight? If the latter, thank you! ;⁠-⁠)> In a material sense, B =/ N. So, no :>. If it's points considered, yes (by approximation, not precisely), but that's not the comparison being made. I used to present material imbalance also and didn't consider bishops and knights the same for similar reasons.

Oct-25-22		chrisowen: A good que v I miss Qa7+ it an oomph job ha it grab cc hub axioms jekyll it an ooh josh it a fog key plug bog tug crane co Qa7+ da it :)

Oct-25-22		monopole2313: A double check means the king has to move. So simple and yet so useful.

Oct-26-22		agb2002: <TheBish> <<TheaN: < TheBish: <agb2002: White has a knight for a rook, a bishop and a pawn...> I know you're a mathematician. Doesn't that reduce down to White being down a rook and pawn? Or are you considering the bishop to be worth considerably more than the knight? If the latter, thank you! ;⁠-⁠)> In a material sense, B =/ N. So, no :>. If it's points considered, yes (by approximation, not precisely), but that's not the comparison being made. I used to present material imbalance also and didn't consider bishops and knights the same for similar reasons.> From a statistical point of view, a bishop and a knight are more or less equivalent and worth about three pawns but in any case they are very different pieces. Mine is a criterion from straightforward logic rather from fuzzy accounting (the relative value of the pieces changes from move to move). The main purpose of my initial material balance is to start scanning the position for piece activity to detect threats and possibilities. Some kind of warm-up.

Oct-26-22		agb2002: <TheBish:... Or are you considering the bishop to be worth considerably more than the knight? If the latter, thank you! ;⁠-⁠) > Much more by far, of course ;-)

Jump to page # (enter # from 1 to 3)
search thread:
< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 3 OF 3 · Later Kibitzing>

NOTE: Create an account today to post replies and access other powerful features which are available only to registered users. Becoming a member is free, anonymous, and takes less than 1 minute! If you already have a username, then simply login login under your username now to join the discussion.

Please observe our posting guidelines:

No obscene, racist, sexist, or profane language.
No spamming, advertising, duplicate, or gibberish posts.
No vitriolic or systematic personal attacks against other members.
Nothing in violation of United States law.
No cyberstalking or malicious posting of negative or private information (doxing/doxxing) of members.
No trolling.
The use of "sock puppet" accounts to circumvent disciplinary action taken by moderators, create a false impression of consensus or support, or stage conversations, is prohibited.
Do not degrade Chessgames or any of it's staff/volunteers.

Please try to maintain a semblance of civility at all times.

See something that violates our rules? Blow the whistle and inform a moderator.

NOTE: Please keep all discussion on-topic. This forum is for this specific game only. To discuss chess or this site in general, visit the Kibitzer's Café.

Messages posted by Chessgames members do not necessarily represent the views of Chessgames.com, its employees, or sponsors.
All moderator actions taken are ultimately at the sole discretion of the administration.

This game is type: CLASSICAL. Please report incorrect or missing information by submitting a correction slip to help us improve the quality of our content.