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David Janowski vs Wilhelm Steinitz
Hastings (1895), Hastings ENG, rd 17, Aug-27
Spanish Game: Morphy Defense. Modern Steinitz Defense (C72)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Given 24 times; par: 27 [what's this?]

Annotations by Harry Nelson Pillsbury.      [17 more games annotated by Pillsbury]

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Kibitzer's Corner
Jan-16-04  Bluebird: Steinitz got demolished here.
May-23-04  refutor: yes, but he missed a clear win, instead of 9. ... Nxf5?, 9. ... Bxf5 10.exf5 c4 wins a piece
Dec-10-05  aw1988: What's the difference? Can't c4 be played in the game?
Dec-10-05  percyblakeney: Shredder doesn't agree with Pillsbury about 9. ... Nxf5 being <a grave error>, it's actually the preferred move. After 9. ... Bxf5 10. exf5 c4 Pillsbury claims that white gets <nothing> for the piece, but Shredder finds lines like for example 11. Ba4+ b5 12. Nc3 bxa4 13. Re1 Nac6 14. Nd5 quite annoying for black, who is evaluated as slightly worse...
Dec-10-05  aw1988: Stupid computers.
Dec-10-05  azaris: After 14...Kd7 15. f6 (15. Nxe7 Bxe7 16. Qg4 Qa5 17. f6+ Kc7) 15...Nxd5 16. fxg7 Bxg7 17. Qxd5 Qf6 it's not Black who is worse.
Dec-10-05  aw1988: OK, you two figure it out. In my language, c4 grabs a piece.
Dec-10-05  percyblakeney: What Shredder plays after 9. ... Bxf5 10. exf5 c4 11. Ba4+ b5 12. Nc3 bxa4 13. Re1 Nac6 14. Nd5 Kd7 is 15. Bf4 and even if it sees white as better I wouldn't exactly bet my apartment that it's the Final Truth about the position... In any case Pillsbury may well be wrong about black having a won game after 9. ... Bxf5.
Dec-10-05  azaris: It's hard for me to guess what Shredder might think White has after 15...Nxf5, but it's probably not worse for Black than the game continuation after 9...Nxf5. Still, I've seen worse gambits played for real.
Oct-06-07  RookFile: This is terrible, it looks like a game between a couple of A players.
Dec-13-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Honza Cervenka: Taking the piece was far from "safe win" for black and especially in otb game such a position would be far more difficult to play from Black's side than from White's. Steinitz's real mistake was 14...Qd6. Instead of that 14...d4 (preventing immediate Nc3) looks still viable.
Dec-13-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Pawn and Two: Fritz finds 9...Bxf5 to be only slightly preferable to 9...Nxf5.

These two moves are Black's best choices, and both provide an approximately equal game. Fritz indicated the following continuations: (-.08) (22 ply) 9...Bxf5 10.exf5 c4 11.Nc3 cxb3 12.axb3 Nac6 13.Re1 h5, or (.09) (22 ply) 9...Nxf5 10.exf5 Nxb3 11.axb3 Bxf5 12.Nc3 Be6 13.Re1 Be7 14.Nd5 0-0.

Dec-13-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Pawn and Two: At move 13, Black's best continuation was: (.00) (20 ply) 13...Be6 14.Nc3 d5 15.Bf4 d4 16.Qh5 0-0 17.Bh6 dxc3 18.Rxe6 fxe6 19.Qg4+ Kf7 20.Qh5+.

As indicated by <Honza Cervenka>, after 13...d5 14.Qh5, necessary was 14...d4.

Fritz indicates that after 14...d4, Black would still have reasonable defensive chances: (.67) (22 ply) 15.Na3 (or 15.Bf4 0-0 16.Na3) 0-0 16.Bf4 Be6 17.Bh6 Qc7 18.Bxf8 Bxf8 19.Nc4 Rd8 20.Nd2 Qf4.

At move 16, Black could have survived longer with 16...Qd8 or 16...Qb8, but after 17.Rxe6 axb5 18.Rxa8 Qxa8, (2.07) (21 ply) 20.Re1 Qa5 20.b4! Qxb4 21.c3 Qa5 22.Qf5 Qb6 23.Qc8+ Qd8 24.Qxc5, White is clearly winning.

Jul-17-09  YoungEd: Pillsbury's notes are pretty good considering how brief they are. Nice clean-up by Janowski at the end!
Oct-25-09  WhiteRook48: he just swindled Steinitz
May-15-10  zev22407: 16) Q-c6 was a losing mistake better was d8
Jul-11-13  wrap99: Perhaps a stupid question, but in the variations above with Re1 -- isn't Re1 check?
Jul-11-13  Shams: <wrap99> No, those lines start with 9...Bxf5 so there is still a Black knight on e7. As noted below, if the e-file were open then 10...c4 would drop a pawn to 11.Qe2+ rather than trap White's bishop.
Jul-11-13  wrap99: Thanks Shams.

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