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Yuri Balashov vs Levon Grigorian
Junior Qualification Tournament - Final (1967), Moscow URS
Tarrasch Defense: Marshall Gambit (D32)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

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Annotations by Stockfish (Computer).      [35434 more games annotated by Stockfish]

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sac: 28.Nexg5 PGN: download | view | print Help: general | java-troubleshooting

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Kibitzer's Corner
Aug-19-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  Fusilli: Are the bonus puzzles of an unspecified level of difficulty? Or are they always like this one? (I don't look at them often enough to know.)
Aug-19-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  chrisowen: Wall ace
Aug-19-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  PawnSac: they seem to be a random mixture, but haven't watched carefully to make concrete assessment.
Aug-19-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  PawnSac: It took a minute to rule out possibilities, but Nxg5 hg Nxg5 has the fork threat Ne6+, the Nf6 is stuck defending against Qh7 mate. White is grabbing a lot of squares around the king and Rg3 with threat of double discovery looks like a winner. White can maintain the attack, improving piece placing while black scrambles to rearrange his forces. OTB, especially if black is low on time, I'd just crash in on g5 trusting there must be a win. So I cheated and just clicked ahead to verify my 3 move choice.

< 35.Rf7! > is a nice deflection move and black could have resigned there. All that remains are desperation moves.

After seeing the finish, I loaded Stockfish. It gives 30...Kf8 as better, although 31.d6! closes the mating net and black will lose heavy material, as in Qxd6 Ke7 Qg7+ Kd8 Nf7+ so it is equally lost.

Anyway, nice attack by Balashov.

Aug-19-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  PawnSac: By the way..

I have an endgame book by Balashov. "Basic Endgames". Very well written. A unique approach to the endgame discussion; rather than focus on tactical sequences to force a win, as in typical manuals, he used excellent game examples (positions) to illustrate some very important principles about the strategic ideas, and proper handling of the ending, as well as temperament, manner of thinking with the common piece and pawn arrangements.

If you get the book, you won't be wasting your money. I found it very helpful, with several important ideas I had not considered.

Aug-19-24  mel gibson: I saw the first few moves straight away.

Stockfish 16.1 says:

28. Nexg5

(28. Nexg5 (1.Nexg5 hxg5 2.Nxg5 Rh8 3.Rg3 Kf8 4.Qg6 Ke7 5.Qg7+ Kd6 6.Qxh8 Ra8 7.Ne4+ Nxe4 8.Rg6+ Kc5 9.Rxb6 Kxb6 10.Qd8+ Kc5 11.Qe7+ Kb6 12.Qxe4 Ra2 13.Qd4+ Ka6 14.h4 Ra5) +14.51/37 790)

score for White +14.51 depth 37.

Aug-19-24  King.Arthur.Brazil: One simple line: 28. Nexg5 hxg5 29. Nxg5 Qd6 30. Ne6+ Kh8 31. Rh3+ Kg8 32. Qg6#. Another line: 28. Nexg5 hxg5 29. Nxg5 Ne5 30. Rxf6 Rxf6 31. Qh7+ Kf8 32. Ne6+ Bxe6 33. Rxf6+ Bf7 34. Rxb6 Rxb6 35. Qh8+ Bg8 36. Qxe5...
Aug-20-24  King.Arthur.Brazil: After 36...Rxf7 37. Rh3+ Rh7 38. Qg7#.
Aug-20-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  An Englishman: Good Evening: <Fusilli>, the bonus puzzles seem to vary in difficulty but tend toward the tough end of the scale. This one proved tough for me: looked like an intuitive sac, but Balashov probably saw all.
Aug-21-24  TheaN: <Fusilli: Are the bonus puzzles of an unspecified level of difficulty? Or are they always like this one? (I don't look at them often enough to know.)>

Random and not that frequently updated, which is why I don't really like the feature. It's just an additional puzzle, that's all. I clicked now but I don't actually know why as I didn't really attempt to solve it (thought it was Rxf6 with some complex line to follow, but Nexg5 is pretty logical in hindsight).

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