KEG: This game is not of much interest. Mortimer's unsound Bishop sacrifice on move 11 left him a piece down for the rest of the game. Maroczy never gave Mortimer a chance after that (though at a few points he might have wrapped things up a bit sooner). The only point of interest was the semi-Queen sacrifices by Maroczy in the air towards the end. Maroczy did not pursue the first two chances, but he finally finished Mortimer off with his very temporary Queen sacrifice on move 33. 1. e4 c5
2. Nf3 e6
3. d4 cxd4
4. Nxd4 Nf6
5. Bd3
5. c3 is usually played here. There is nothing much wrong with the text except that it is part of a long-tern failing by Mortimer, who did not move this Knight until his 17th move by which time he was long-since lost. 5... Nc6
6. NxN bxN
7. 0-0 d5
 click for larger viewMaroczy has just about equalized already. The rest of the game was all downhill for Mortimer. 8. e5
Rosenthal in the Tournament Book states that Mortimer should have played 8. Qe2 here, but that is not much of an improvement over the text. Perhaps best was to develop the Queen's Knight with 8. Nc3 instead of leaving it sitting idly on b1 for the first 16 moves of this game. 8... Nd7
9. f4 Bc5+
10. Kh1 0-0
The position was now:
 click for larger viewIt is hard to understand why Mortimer thought a Bishop sacrifice made sense here. The Bishop he sacrifices was his only developed piece. Not surprisingly, the sacrifice fails and the game is lost. Hard to believe. 11. Bxh7+ KxB
12. Qh5+ Kg8
13. Rf3
So Mortimer's plan was to launch an attack with Queen and Rook. Did he really think this could work? The position was now:
 click for larger view13... f6!
Of course.
14. Rh3
Mortimer should surely have tried to bring some other pieces into play. 14. Nd2 looks best (but down a piece Mortimer would still be lost). 14... Qe8
This is certainly good enough, but 14...fxe5 would have ended the game sooner. 15. Qh7+ Kf7
16. Rg3
This or 16. Nd2 were best, though hopeless. Rosenthal proposed 16. Rh6 in the Tournament Book, but Black simply plays 16...fxe5. 16... Rg8
17. Nc3
Finally developing the Knight. But since he is relying on a King-side attack he should have played 17. Nd2. 17... Nf8
Again good enough, but 17...Ba6 beginning a counterattack was even more decisive. 18. Qd3
He might as well have tried 18. Qh5+ and hoped for a miracle (i.e., 18...Ke7 19. exf6+ and White wins). But Maroczy would almost certainly have played 18...g6 winning easily. 18... f5
Closing the d3 h7 diagonal and essentially ending the game, the position now being:  click for larger viewWhat followed, as I will discuss in my next post on this game, was of interest only because of the neat tactics that ended the game. As a competitive matter, the game was long since over. |