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Anatoly Karpov vs Andras Adorjan
"KO'd" (game of the day Mar-28-2017)
World Team Championship (1989), Lucerne SUI, rd 8, Nov-05
Queen's Indian Defense: Fianchetto. Check Variation Intermezzo Line (E15)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Given 30 times; par: 53 [what's this?]

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Kibitzer's Corner
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Aug-20-08  Woody Wood Pusher: Hey ToTheDeath how is that video collection coming along?

Beautiful game, white's pieces are perfectly placed and black's are left as clumsy observers. Just watch Karpov optimise his dark bishop with Bc3-d2-f4, while black's light bishop and queen get shut out the game.

The checkmate is only a few moves away at the end, black cannot prevent Rh1+, Kg5 Rh5+, Kg4 then either f3 mate or Qxf5 mate.

Aug-20-08  ToTheDeath: It's excellent, I have to say Karpov analyzes quite differently from Kasparov- you get the impression he doesn't always look for the objectively best move but the one that will give his opponent the most headache.
Aug-20-08  Woody Wood Pusher: That's interesting, I read something along those lines a while back actually. Karpov was a very practical player interested in making good moves efficiently, but Kasparov was always more interested in playing the 'best' move and discovering the 'truth' of the position.
Oct-08-08  notyetagm: <ToTheDeath: <17.c5> is a very daring move- Karpov correctly judged the gain of space and shutting out of Black's bishops worth giving the knight an outpost at d5. The Ba6 looks active but it hits nothing, while the dark squared bishop is limited in scope by White's pawns and White will play Be4, Ne5 to attack c6. <24.Qc3!> prepares Bf4 while preventing ...Qa5.

28...Qa8 is ugly but 28...Ne7 29.Qa5! leaves the bishop on a6 in danger.

<30.Bxg5!> refutes Black's desperate trap. A direct assault on the king follows naturally.>

Beautiful game by Karpov.

Jul-27-14  SpiritedReposte: Elegant play from Karpov.

35.Kg2! and 38.Qf7! are such subtle yet deadly moves.

Feb-22-15  carpovius: two karpov-like "sacrifices" :)
Jun-02-16  FairyPromotion: Black is KO'd
Mar-28-17  thegoldenband: <FairyPromotion: Black is KO'd>

Awww, FairyPromotion's pun is much better with the "Black is" intact. :(

Mar-28-17
Premium Chessgames Member
  OhioChessFan: If I was Black against Karpov, and my best move was Qa8, I'd go ahead and resign then.
Mar-28-17
Premium Chessgames Member
  An Englishman: Good Evening: Amazing how, time and again, Karpov can "coax" and "persuade" his opponents to slowly degrade their own positions with moves like ...Qa8.
Mar-28-17  ChessHigherCat: I guess if 10..d5xc4 11.bxc4 Bxc4 then 12. Ne5 with a very strong attack on c6. I don't think 12. Qa4+ would work, though, because of Bb5
Mar-28-17  thegoodanarchist: < thegoldenband: <FairyPromotion: Black is KO'd>

Awww, FairyPromotion's pun is much better with the "Black is" intact. :(>

Right! It was a great pun, based on the title of a book by Adorjan ("Black is OK").

I used to own a copy of Informant in which this game was named best in that year.

Mar-28-17  LivBlockade: Yes, I voted for his version in the Pun Voting Booth just two days ago. I wonder how/why it was changed.
Mar-28-17  ColeTrane: ...this game would have made 8th US President very honoured....

(http://www.npr.org/templates/story/...)

Mar-28-17
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: <thegoodanarchist: < thegoldenband: <FairyPromotion: Black is KO'd> Awww, FairyPromotion's pun is much better with the "Black is" intact. :(>

Right! It was a great pun, based on the title of a book by Adorjan ("Black is OK").>

Blimey - that's right. I completely missed it.

The opening is massively freakishly moronically similar to Kasparov vs Karpov, 1984.

Karpov shoulda woulda coulda won that.

But he didn't wouldn't couldn't.

In this game he coulda shoulda and did.

Mar-28-17  RookFile: Karpov locked black's a6 bishop and queen out of play while at the same time attacking on the kingside. Great play.
Mar-28-17
Premium Chessgames Member
  PawnSac: < Woody Wood Pusher: The checkmate is only a few moves away at the end, black cannot prevent Rh1+, Kg5 Rh5+, Kg4 then either f3 mate or Qxf5 mate. >

yup. another way to see it is Rh1 Kg5 f4+ Kg4 Qh5#

Mar-28-17  AlicesKnight: Cf. Black moves 30 and 35; "Use the forks, Anatoly - use the forks!"
Mar-28-17
Premium Chessgames Member
  eternaloptimist: After I played over this game, it looks like Adorjan didn't even have an actual plan. I think a logical plan is (starting @ move 12): 12...♙f5 & shortly after that play -> ...♘f6 -> ...♘e4 (to get a good grip on the e4 square & to get a good outpost for his ♘). I'm not saying all of these moves should be played back-to-back in consecutive order. Of course it would depend on what Karpov would've played but I really think that this plan would've given him a more playable position. It's similar to the Stonewall Defense. If the ♘ was still on d2 & exchanged w/ Adorjan's ♘ on e4, then ...♙fxe4 & he would have a semi-open f-file to work w/. Then doubling his ♖s on the f-file would've given him some counterplay. Also playing ...♗d6 before Karpov played 17.♙c5 probably would've been a good idea considering his ♗ did virtually nothing from the g7 square. 18...♙g6 led to Karpov's 21.♙h4 -> 29.♙h5 -> 31.♙h6 etc plan. 1 thing I've noticed from playing the white pieces vs the QID is that quite often the e4 square is very important. Someone beat me on gameknot.com last year b/c I didn't control the e4 square well enough. 1st he exchanged his QID fianchettoed ♗ for my ♔side fianchettoed ♗ which weakened my control of the e4 square (the exchange of ♗s would've been necessary for me regardless b/c if ♗f1 preserving my ♗, then he could've played ...♕d5. Then the ♕ + ♗ battery on the a8-h1 diagonal would've led a really quick mate.) He used the e4 square as a pivot point/springboard for his ♕, then a ♘ to get his attack rolling. I'm thinking seriously about playing the QID w/ the black pieces myself when the opportunities arise. Karpov really took advantage of the fact that Adorjan didn't have a real plan & b/c some of his pieces were on bad squares (especially his ♕ on a8).

<OCF> Lol 😃 indeed if the best move u had was ...♕a8 & u were playing Karpov, there's a good chance that wouldn't have been a good sign for u!

Also 37.♗xf5! is a great move that rips open Adorjan's position & clears the way for 38.♕f7 which led to Adorjan's resignation! Indeed <FP>'s original pun "Black is KO'd" is better than "KO'd" b/c Adorjan wrote the book "Black is OK!". It's similar to his book title.

Mar-28-17  thegoodanarchist: <offramp: <thegoodanarchist: < thegoldenband: <FairyPromotion: Black is KO'd> Awww, FairyPromotion's pun is much better with the "Black is" intact. :(>

Right! It was a great pun, based on the title of a book by Adorjan ("Black is OK").>

Blimey - that's right. I completely missed it.

The opening is massively freakishly moronically similar to Kasparov vs Karpov, 1984.>

Thanks for the link! It was one of Kasparov's 48 free chess lessons.

Sep-30-21  Gaito:


click for larger view

WHITE TO MOVE

In his annotations of Chess Informant No.48 Karpov appended an exclamation mark to the move 25.Bc2! which was what he played.

Maybe 25.Bf4 deserved attention too, which is the move suggsted by both engines Lc0 and SF14.

Excellent comments of this game can be found in the Youtube channel of GM Ben Finegold in the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD_...
(Lecture Series: Middlegame Strategy of Anatoly Karpov). Highly recommended!

Sep-30-21  Gaito:


click for larger view

WHITE TO MOVE

Karpov has achieved an overwhelming positional advantage, and now there were many ways to finish off the game. He played 31.h6! and won quickly. Also worthy of consideration was 31.g4, but 31.h6 was perhaps more forceful and more direct. This was a typical Karpov game of positional domination in which, as GM Ben Finegold said, "Anatoly Karpov made a strong GM look badly".

Feb-01-24  N.O.F. NAJDORF: What is wrong with

31...Bh8 ?

Feb-01-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  beatgiant: <N.O.F. NAJDORF> If nothing else, at least White has 31...Bh8 <32. Qb3> Rd5 33. Bxd5 exd5 34. Bxh6. White wins the exchange and still has a big attack on Black's broken and undefended kingside.
Feb-01-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  beatgiant: <N.O.F.> Oh sorry I misread the position, it would probably go 31...Bh8 32. Qb3 Rd5 33. Bxd5 exd5 <34. Bxf6> Bxf6 35. Qf3 Bxe5 36. Rxe5. Material is roughly equal but Black's kingside is defenseless.
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