Alexander Alekhine vs Efim Bogoljubov (1934)

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Alexander Alekhine vs Efim Bogoljubov
Alekhine - Bogoljubov World Championship Rematch (1934), Freiburg GER, rd 8, Apr-22
Nimzo-Indian Defense: Saemisch Variation. Accelerated (E24) · 1/2-1/2

ANALYSIS [x]

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Aug-23-06		OJC: Poor Bogoljubov blew a hard earned victory. Fine and Reinfeld call 56. ...gxf4+ an "incomprehensible" blunder.

Aug-23-06		syracrophy: <<OJC>: Poor Bogoljubov blew a hard earned victory. Fine and Reinfeld call 56. ...gxf4+ an "incomprehensible" blunder.> Yes, it's a mistake because it loses two pawns for one. I think that instead of 56...gxf4+, it was better to play 56...g4. It's just a point of view :-)

Aug-23-06		OJC: Yeah, 56. ...g4 also helps prevent the white king from coming into play since the pawn is passed and protected. 59. ...Rc8 is also a rather bad move.

Mar-14-08		Knight13: <59. ...Rc8 is also a rather bad move.> I don't see a better one.

Mar-16-08		Richard Taylor: Good game by Bogoljubov - it hows many of the ideas of the Nimzo and the Saemisch in particular. The errors don't matter - we can see it was a well fought and very interesting game.

Nov-16-13		wwall: A Guide to Chess Endings, by Euwe and Hooper, page 181 recommends 59...Rh8 (instead of 59...Rc8), and if 60.Rc7 Kd4 61.Ke6 d5 62.Rd7 c2 63.Rxd5+ Kc4 64.Rd7 Rc8 65.Rc7+ Rxc7 66.h8=Q c1=Q and Black wins. But instead of 61.Ke6?, it looks like 61.Kg6 and 62.Kg7 draws.

Sep-29-16		tpstar: GM Andrew Soltis presents this game in the November 2001 "Chess Life" with these comments (converted into algebraic). After 45 ... Kf6: click for larger view "Almost everyone who witnessed this game, including World Champion Alekhine, expected White to lose. That would trim his lead to one game." After 59. Rd7: click for larger view "59 ... Rc8?? Black wins easily with 59 ... Rh8, e.g. 60. Kg6 Kc6! 61. Rg7 c2, or 60. Kf4 Kc4 61. Ke3 Re8+ 62. Kf3 c2 63. Rxd6 Kc5! 64. Rd7 Kc6." At game's end: "Miss an easy win today and you'll probably lose tomorrow. Bogoljubow lost the next game and the match was soon a rout. Bogo had an explanation: Alekhine had hypnotized him into making bad moves, he said. Bogo wore dark glasses for the next few games." No comment on Black's Move 56.

Jul-26-19		g15713: Did Black miss a win in the rook endgame? E. 1 Rook and four pawns against rook and two pawns. The critical position is: Black to move. Last: 56.f4 click for larger view Does Black play 56...gxf4+ exchanging pawns or is it better to play 56...g4 as now the knight pawn is passed and protected? A consensus among the chess users above was that 56...gxf4+ was a mistake and 56...g4! was a winning move. Stockfish 60-minute analysis after 56...g4 agrees: 1) -6.91 (39 ply) 57.Kh4 c4 58.Kg5 Rf8 59.Kh6 c3 60.Kg7 Rc8 61.Re1 Kd4 62.Kf7 c2 63.Re8 Rxe8 64.Kxe8 c1=Q 65.h8=Q+ Ke4 66.Qh2 Kf3 67.Kd7 Qxf4 68.Qh1+ Kf2 69.Qh4+ Ke2 70.Qh8 g3 71.Qg8 Kf2 72.Qa2+ Kf3 73.Qd5+ Qe4 74.Qd1+ Kf4 75.Qxd6+ Kf3 76.Qd1+ Kg2 77.Qd2+ Kh3 78.Qh6+ Qh4 79.Qd2 f4 80.Qc3 Qg4+ 81.Kd6 f3 82.Qa1 g2 After game continuation 56...gxf4+ 57.Kxf4 one has the following: E. 1.1 Rook and three pawns against rook and one pawn Black to move. Last: 57.Kxf4 click for larger view Game continuation: 57...c4 58.Kxf5 c3 59.Rd7 E. 1.2 Black to move. Last: 59.Rd7 click for larger view Mbourzut wrote an article in Chess Publishing about this ending Reference: 'https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/ch... <"Bogoljubov played 59...Rc8?! and drew after 60.Rc7! Rf8+ 61.Kg6 Kd4 62.Kg7 Rb8 63.h8Q Rxh8 64.Kxh8 E. Klein in the Journal de Geneve, 1934 claimed that Black could have won with 59...Rh8!"> E. 1.3 White to move. Last: 59...Rh8 click for larger view <"This verdict seems to have been accepted by Cheron (his #404), the ECE, and V. Charushin in his monograph on Bogoljubov. Here are some of the variations that were considered: 60.Kf6? Kc6 (60...c2 61.Rc7 Rxh7! also wins) 61.Ke6 c2 62.Rxd6+ Kb5-+ 60.Kg6? Kc6! 61.Rg7 (61.Ra7 d5 62.Rg2 Rxh7 63.Kxh7 c2-+) 61...d5 62.Rg8 Rxh7 63.Kxh7 d4-+ 60.Kf4? This is E. Klein's main line"> See above reference for analysis on 60.Kf4? E. 1.4 <"The best defense is 60.Rc7! analogous to the game continuation. Then after 60...Kd4 we arrive at"> click for larger view <"Now Klein only considers 61.Ke6? which indeed loses to 61...d5 (Here Cheron claims that after 61...Kd3 White can draw with 62.Rd7, but Black still wins with 62...Ke4!) 62.Rd7 (62.Kd6 Kd3-+) 62...c2 63.Rxd5+ Kc4 64.Rd7 Rc8-+ But why not 61.Kg6! similar to the game continuation? After 61...d5 62.Kg7 Rd8 63.h8Q Rxh8 64.Kxh8 Black has indeed gained a tempo compared to the game continuation, but a straightforward analysis shows that is still not enough to win the game. So, the verdict is that Bogoljubov did not miss a win in the starting position."> E. 1.5 Black to move after 64.Kxh8 click for larger view According to Shredder this is a draw Bottom line is that 56...gxf4+? allowed White to save himself while 56...g4! would have won.

Feb-10-25		tbontb: For the record, Tablebase confirms 59....Rh8 is only a draw, as pointed out by <wwall> and <g15713>.

Feb-10-25		NM JRousselle: 51... Rc4 followed by Rh4 would have saved Bogo a lot of trouble.

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