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Jackson Showalter vs James Hanham
6th American Chess Congress, New York (1889), New York, NY USA, rd 17, Apr-12
Philidor Defense: Hanham Variation (C41)  ·  1/2-1/2

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

Annotations by Wilhelm Steinitz.      [129 more games annotated by Steinitz]

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Kibitzer's Corner
Jun-01-08  savagerules: This is a really great game! Hanham plays inspired, forgoes castling and plays in a modern style- gets a nice attack kind of like a Kings Indian type game, sacrifices a piece but then misses a couple moves which would have won it. This had to be exhausting for both players.
Jul-21-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  woldsmandriffield:


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This one is insane. Black can win with the incredible 65..g4 66 Ne2 Bc8!!

Black cannot go 66..Kd3? immediately because of 67 Nf4+ so the Bishop must move - but where? Since it must protect g4, there are only three possibilities.

A) 66..Bd7? allows a fork: 67 Nf4 Kd4 68 Nh5 Kc4 69 Nf6 (tempo gain) 69..Be6 70 Nxg4 Bxg4 and now either 71 Kxg4 or moving the King towards a1 draws.

B) 66..Bf5? allows a force-field: 67 Nc3+ Kd3 68 Nd5 (barrier on c2,c3,c4) and now if 68..Kd4 69 Nb4 Bc8 70 Nxa6 =

So the only route to victory is C) 66..Bc8!! and now after 67 Nc3+ Kd4 68 Na4 Black still has to be careful. The hasty 68..Bd7? allows 69 Nb6 Be6 70 Na8! followed by Nc7 and Nxa6. But Black has 68..Be6 69 Nb6 Kc5! and now if 70 Na8 Kc6 traps the Knight.

For more analysis of this amazing endgame, check out the following video which includes a profile of James "dude of the tournament" Hanham:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11F...

Jul-25-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  woldsmandriffield: Note also that after 66..Bf5 67 Nc3+ if Black tries 67..Kd4 then 68 Nd1! holds again creating a force-field covering the c3 and c4 squares, while if 68..Nc5 69 Ne3 gains a tempo for Nxg4 by hitting the Bishop.

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