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Amos Burn vs Alexander Alekhine
Karlsbad (1911), Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary) AUH, rd 4, Aug-25
French Defense: Classical. Tartakower Variation (C13)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Given 6 times; par: 181 [what's this?]

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 3 OF 3 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Feb-21-06  McCool: Black should have forfeit earlier because h had the wrong coloured bishop.
Apr-08-08  Knight13: Extremely well performance by Burn!!
Jan-22-09  WhiteRook48: Alekhine got Burned!
Feb-28-09  WhiteRook48: Burn beats Alekhine. Amazing!
Mar-27-09  WhiteRook48: so where was Alekhine's blunder? Or were there several? I don't like to analyze, and I have no chess engine
Apr-17-09  YoungEd: I first saw this game in Reinfeld's "100 Instructive Games of Alekhine," which is quite good. Burn takes a while, but gets the job done!
Apr-17-09  darook: >>> "The Burn Supremacy".
May-01-09  WhiteRook48: <Except for Morphy, Alekhine has the highest lifetime wining percentage.> Alekhine does not whine in chess!
Oct-04-09  TheWizardOfOz: Kmoch, in the errata at the beginnig of the book, points out that instead of 26...Bc6, Black should have played 26...Nc8!, intending Nb6 and Ba4
Apr-23-11  AVRO38: A text book demonstration of a good knight vs. bad bishop ending.
Jan-24-14  davide2013: 27...Bc6 is a mistake, based on the erroneous evaluation that the Pc3 would fall if black would be able to play Nb5. Black should have played 26...,Nc8; followed by Nb6 and Ba4, trying to exchange the bad bishop.
Dec-05-14  lentil: Burns' methods to constrain W's bad bishop are truly inspiring.
May-05-16  GrandMaesterPycelle: I was wondering if there is a reason Burn took so long before playing Ba4, but of course Nxd4 had to be prevented - which makes Alekhine's mistake subtler than it originally seemed
Jun-20-17
Premium Chessgames Member
  keypusher: Position after 64.Na6:


click for larger view

If (like me), you were wondering why Alekhine gives away a pawn here with 64....Be8, it's because he has no choice. After 64....Bc8 (64....Ka7 65.Nc5 Bc8? 66.Kb5 is even worse) 65.Nc5+ Kc7 66.Kb5 the bishop is completely dominated, and if the pieces are traded the king gets dominated subsequently: 66....Bd7+ 67.Nxd7 Kxd7 68.Kb6 and His Majesty goes to the wall after 68....Kd8 69.Kc6 Ke7 70.Kc7 Ke8 71.Kd6 Kf7 72.Kd7, etc.

So Alekhine gives up the pawn, but in exchange his bishop finally gets some air. Unfortunately for Black, after some more maneuvering we get to this position:


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and Burn uncorks 76.f5! gxf5 77.Kf4 Bg4 78.Kg5 Bh3 79.Ne8! Kf7 80.Nf6


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Basically, <all> the black pawns are doomed. Really a nice ending.

Jun-21-17  ughaibu: But Keypusher, after Bc8 and Nc5, why not Kc6?
Jun-21-17
Premium Chessgames Member
  keypusher: <ughaibu: But Keypusher, after Bc8 and Nc5, why not Kc6?>

Well, this is what I get for trying to play pedagogue -- I didn't even analyze the most obvious move. Luckily for me, after 64....Bc8 65.Nc5+ Kc6 66.Kb4 the bishop still has nowhere to go. 66....Kb6 67.Ka4 Kc6 68.Ka5 is zugswang: 68....Kc7 69.Kb5 and we're back in a line I posted.

Jun-21-17  sudoplatov: This game reminds me a bit of the Olafsson-Fischer game from the Porotoz Interzonal. Fischer, like Alekhine was at the beginning of his career and falls into a strategic loss to a more experienced opponent. Both Alekhine and Fischer seemed to have learned a lot from these games and later they win games using similar techniques
Jun-22-17  ughaibu: Keypusher: Nice!
Jun-22-17  morfishine: Burn's Immortal!

Everybody gets a ribbon, so everybody gets an "Immortal"

*****

Jul-12-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  keypusher: < morfishine: Burn's Immortal! Everybody gets a ribbon, so everybody gets an "Immortal">

OK, for starters, Burn has a good candidate for the most spectacular OTB move ever.


click for larger view

E MacDonald vs Burn, 1910

He's got this, which doesn't even make his top games list on cg.com:

Burn vs Steinitz, 1898

Amos Burn deserves better than to be patronized by a fish like you.

Jul-13-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: Great game, but doesn't Burns waste some time shuffling his king around in the b2 c2 area? It seemed he could grab the opposition any time he wanted.
Sep-11-18  WorstPlayerEver: 21... Qb6 does not look good. Quickfrish says 21... Qa3, but I came up with 21... Qb2, which SF probably had found a little later.


click for larger view

21... Qb2 22. Qxb2 Rxb2 23. h4 Ra2 24. Nc2 Na7 25. Nb4 Ra3 26. Bg4 Nb5 27. Nxd5 exd5 28. Bxd7 Nxc3 29. Re1 Kf8 30. f5 Ra6 31. e6 fxe6 32. Bxe6 Ra2 33. Kf1 Rd2 34. Ra1 Rxd4 35. Ra6 Rxh4 36. Ra3 Nb5 37. Ra8+ Ke7 38. Bxd5 c3 39. Rc8 Kd6 and Black, the great Alekhine, had won


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Sep-11-18  WorstPlayerEver: PS the point is White can't play Qe3 after 21... Qb2, because they run into funny back row trouble:

21... Qb2 22. Qe3 Ra3 23. Rf3 Ra1 24. Rf2 Qc1 25. Qxc1 Rxc1 26. Rd2 Rxc3


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Oct-03-19  sillybilly47: Knight is much better than the Bishop.
May-12-23
Premium Chessgames Member
  Honza Cervenka: <WhiteRook48: so where was Alekhine's blunder?>

There are no blunders from AAA's part in this game. There are just a few suboptimal decisions leading in the end into an ending with bad Bishop, which was impossible to save. Black was clearly better after the opening but he gave away all advantage with imprecise 21...Qb6 instead of 21...Qa3 or 21...Qb2. It was better to preserve at least one of major piece on the board. 31...f5 was also a mistake, 31...f6 was certainly better.

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