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Boris Spassky vs Lajos Portisch
Spassky - Portisch Candidates Semifinal (1977), Geneva SUI, rd 9, Jul-26
Spanish Game: Morphy Defense. Breyer Defense Zaitsev Hybrid (C95)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

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sac: 27.Nxh5 PGN: download | view | print Help: general | java-troubleshooting

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Kibitzer's Corner
Mar-30-06  zev22407: Great attacking game by Spassky.
14)f4 he opens lines against the king.
27)N:h5! demolition of the king's castle.
30)B-d1 bringing the reserve to the attack.
Mar-30-06  drukenknight: another disaster by portisch. DOes he see that the B is en prise? What is wrong with 30...KxB?
Mar-30-06  pawn to QB4: Well, 31.Qe3+ looks a decent reply. Then 31...Kxh4 32.Qf4+ Ng4 33.Nf3#. so 31...Kg6 32.Bxh5+ ends things soon, e.g. ...Kh7 33.Bxf7+ or ...Qxh5 34.Rxh5 Kxh5 35.Rf5+.
Mar-30-06  nolanryan: it was a disaster by portisch, but 30... KxB would make the end come even quicker... spassky would then have the nice follow-up 31 Qf2
Mar-30-06  pawn to QB4: Your move's more elegant than mine, nolanryan. druken, please don't feel we're rubbing it in. Does 31.Rf5+ also win?
Mar-30-06  drukenknight: 31 Qf2 Bc8 and it's mate in nine it seems. the chesslab pc did not see any of this on move 31 or 30.
Jun-28-10  sicilianhugefun: Spassky's 31st move and onwards reminds me of Ryu finishing Guile in a multiple combo in the street figther game champion edition.
Nov-19-11  AnalyzeThis: This is chess in the grand manner.
Feb-03-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: Yeah, um... after 33...Kxh7


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it's not the best position for black to be in.

Jul-12-14  Howard: Probably Spassky's best game of the match.
Apr-13-15  Retireborn: One of my favourite Spassky games. 22...Qe7 has been criticized for allowing White to force open the f-file with 23.Bg5 & 24.f4, and it's true that 22...Qc7 was stronger.

Houdini suggests (instead of breaking the pin with 23...Qf8) the counter-intuitive 23...Qd8! and says that Black's position is still defensible after 24.f4 h4! 25.Bxh4 Nfxe4 26.Nxe4 Nxe4 27.Bxe4 Qxh4 28.Nf3 Qh6!

There's a striking (Nxh5!) resemblance to one of my favourite Tal games:

Tal vs Spassky, 1980

May-21-17  edubueno: Sin dudas 22...De7 es un error, después del cual la espada queda pendiendo por sobre la cabeza de las negras. Pero en general la posición de LP ya era difícil y una defensa más cautelosa con Cfd7 seguido de f6 permitiría una masacre más lenta.
Jun-28-20  Howard: First time I was aware that the first 19 moves were identical to Game 3.

CL & R probably pointed this out, but must have overlooked it.

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