Viktor Korchnoi vs Efim Geller (1963)

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Viktor Korchnoi vs Efim Geller
9th Soviet Team Championship qual-3 (1963), Moscow URS, rd 2, Aug-08
King's Indian Defense: Saemisch. Closed Variation 7…c6 (E88) · 0-1

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

Given 5 times; par: 94 [what's this?]

explore this opening	find similar games	32 more Korchnoi/Geller games
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Mar-11-04		ughaibu: On move 20 Geller trades his queen for rook, piece and pawn. Both sides appear to have solid positions and in the static sense white's knights look better than black's bishops. After a short period of shuffling around black turns out to have a very powerful attack on the kingside. I cant help feeling that Korchnoi overestimated white's position and could've done better with an immediate attack on b5 trying to show up an insecurity in the position of the knight on c4.

Mar-11-04		Lawrence: ughaibu, just a bit of info on that spectacular exchange: if Junior 8 is to be believed, 20...Nxg4 and what ensued was Black's only way to maintain his slight lead. White however could have played 23.Qg5, better than the 23.Qc1 he played.

Mar-11-04		ughaibu: Lawrence: Thanks for that, it's interesting, I actually didn't like Qg5 (when it was played) and thought Qf1 looked most natural. Looking at it again I guess Bh6 looks strong in reply to Qf1, difficult.

Mar-11-04		Lawrence: ughaibu, Junior plays Korchnoi's 25.Qg5 but Fritz prefers 25.h4.

Mar-11-04		ughaibu: I wonder what the appeal is, Qg5 looks quite pointless to me.

Mar-11-04		drukenknight: surely that was not the last mistake. What do you get when you plug in 40 Rg3?

Mar-11-04		ughaibu: Kh8 I'd imagine.

Mar-12-04		Lawrence: dk, 40.Rg3 is Junior's favorite, and ugi's answer is right. Then 41.h3 Bh5. With a virtually identical eval is 40.h3 Bh5.

Mar-12-04		Lawrence: ughaibu, leaving J8 on for a longer search, it decides that Korchnoi's 23.Qc1 is a bit stronger than 23.Qg5, just the contrary of what I said yesterday. As you suggested, 25.Qf1 is met by 25...Bh6 and now Black has a whopping advantage, eval -3.09 (5 min.)

Mar-12-04		ughaibu: Thanks. I guess it's too much to hope that they explain why they like Qg5?

Mar-12-04		Lawrence: ughaibu, I asked Junior 8 and he just said "It's da strongest move, man, it's da strongest move."

Mar-12-04		drukenknight: so does 40 Rg3 Kh8 etc. keep the game even? That looks like the pt where it goes wrong for Korch.

Mar-12-04		Lawrence: dk, no, it's not even. 40.Rg3 was White's best move but there's an eval of -1.59. By move 13 Black had gained an edge. Later it gets less bad for White until 46.Qc1?, eval. -2.86, and then Korchnoi's position quickly falls apart. Geller missed 40...Nb2, which would surely have won him the game, eval -6.19 (Junior 8)

Mar-26-04		ughaibu: This page needs more posts, it's not yet a significant game.

Mar-26-04		ughaibu: No comment?

Mar-26-04		Lawrence: <ugi>, this page needs more posts the same as you need more saki, so go ahead, have one on me.

Mar-26-04		ughaibu: Lawrence: Thanks. I've got the weirdest nayamis at the moment, if I were Marnoff Mirlony I'd be confident.

Mar-26-04		tamar: Okay, I have to ask. What is a nayamis? A Japanese word for headcold?

Mar-27-04		ughaibu: "Nayami" is a problem that needs thinking through, a worry, that kind of thing.

Mar-27-04		tamar: <"Nayami"> Well good luck solving it if you do have a worry. It sounds like a neat word, a term that could be used to apply to Korchnoi's overall predictament in this game. Geller's moves look very natural, with his pieces taking up unassailable posts, while Korchnoi has unsolvable problems, and keeps having to find new homes for his pieces, especially the queen.

Apr-28-04		ughaibu: In this game Geller recaptures on f5 with his bishop, this is extremely unusual, the only other example I can think of is Spassky vs Ragozin, 1956. If black had lost the annotators would have the facility to readily criticise this recapture without considering it's actual merits. Chess isn't an absract theorem in which the players search for the correct moves, it's a confrontation in real time in which the players depend on their own resources. Moves such as 16....Bf5 that take the game out of it's routine and into the realm of personality are those which cause the distinction between a great game and a grandmaster draw. One can study openings or endings till their eyes pop but unless they can make unprecedented decisions they won't be playing chess.

Apr-28-04		Gypsy: Bxf5 isn't that weird, is it?

Apr-28-04		ughaibu: It's even weirder in this position because white's b4 has left the knight on c3 unsupported.

Apr-28-04		Gypsy: Good food for thought. Thnx! (Though I have to leave this thinking for later.)

Apr-28-04		ughaibu: Gypsy: Thanks. My post above was in conjunction with a couple of others, here: Sokolsky vs Botvinnik, 1939 and here:K Chernyshov vs A Lesiak, 1969

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