Alexander Shabalov vs Roar Elseth (1991)

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Alexander Shabalov vs Roar Elseth
Oslo Cup (1991), Oslo NOR, rd 3, Mar-??
Spanish Game: Closed Variations. Delayed Exchange (C85) · 1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

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Jun-18-09		Klingsor: 23.h4!

Jun-18-09		Confuse: Stunning.. completely logical, but hard to see from the original position for whatever reason. lovely trap.

Jun-18-09		zooter: 23.h4 and black cannot take the pawn by 23...Qxh4 as that would lead to 24.Nf5 trapping the knight Black could refuse the sacrifice by 23...Qf6/Qe5 (23...Qh6 24.Ng4 pretty much leads to the same line) 24.Ng4 Qe6 25.e5 and white wins a decisive material advantage Time to check as I could find no other better moves...

Jun-18-09		310metaltrader: Pretty cool, there is no way to keep the horsie!

Jun-18-09		zooter: well, I got the first move, but after 23...Qxh4 I missed 24.g3 Well at-least my strategy was correct though the execution was flawed

Jun-18-09		der623: In the final position, Black could play on a little further. Black could play g6 hitting the Knight which is pinned to the King on h3. White could play Qg4, but Black could play h5. Should the Queen move, the Knight is still pinned. White could check with the Knight again on f5, but that would be repeating the position. If White checks with Knight on h6, Black's king could go to g7, hitting the Knight while the Queen is pinned to the King. If White exchanges queens, the Knight on h6 is hung out to dry. It seems to me that White may have trouble holding on to the Knight.

Jun-18-09		zenpharaohs: Deep Fritz 11 agrees with the game line, but the position at the end seems far from resignable, and is valued as +1.46 at 22 ply. According to DF11 the continuation is: 27 ... g6 28 Qg4 Rd2 29 Kg2 Rxc2 30 Re3 Kh8 31 Qd1 Rb2 32 Nh4 Qd6 33 Nf3 Qxd1 34 Rxd1 Re7 35 Rd8+ Kg7 36 Nd2 click for larger view Here is where I think Black thinks about resigning. White has extracted and redeployed his Knight and taken the Queens off the board. Material is close (Knight to two pawns) but it is a better Knight than it is good two pawns. Black's rooks do not have much scope and don't work together. This is the start of where I think Black should resign. 36 ... Rc2 37 Nc4 f6 38 Red3 Re2 39 Ne3 Rf7 40 Re8 Rb2 41 Rdd8 Kh6 42 Ng4+ Kh5 43 Kh3 Rb1 44 Rf8 Rxf8 45 Rxf8 Rh1+ 46 Kg2 Rd1 47 Nxf6+ Kh6 48 Rg8 Rd6 49 Ng4+ Kg5 50 Kh3 click for larger view Black should have resigned by this point - it's all downhill from here: 50 ... Rf6 (else forced mate) 51 Re8 Rxf2 (forced) 52 Nxf2 Kf6 53 Ng4+ Kf7 (forced) 54 Rc8 Ke6 55 Rxc7 c4 56 bxc4 Mate in 17 (possibly less).

Jun-18-09		dzechiel: White to move (23?). Material even. "Medium." This one is considerably more difficult than yesterday's position. The solutions to the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday positions this week fairly jumped off the screen at me. This has taken several minutes, and I'm still not sure if it's correct. It doesn't take too long to spot the only weakness in black's position - the knight. If there was some way to remove the protection of the black queen, white could pick up a piece. I can find only one more that's forcing on the black queen: 23 h4 The black queen is under attack. There are many ways to save the queen, but only four that also save the knight: - 23...Qh6 - 23...Qf6 - 23...Qe5 - 23...Qxh4 The first three of these moves 23...Qh6 or 23...Qf6 or 23...Qe5 are all met with 24 Ng4 attacking the queen once again. Now there is only one move to save the queen AND the knight: 24...Qd6 but after 25 e5 black now must play 25...Qd2 and now 26 Rad1 and black can no longer save the queen and the knight. The game might continue 26...Qxc2 27 Rxd8 Rxd8 28 Qxf4 The more interesting line is 23...Qxh4 24 g3 forking queen and knight. 24...Nh3+ 25 Kg2 and with the queen under attack, black has no good way to save both pieces. If the queen moves, say 25...Qh6 26 Nf5 and the knight will fall. Or on 25...Qxe4 26 Qxe4 Rxe4 27 Kxh3 I think that's all there is, time to check.

Jun-18-09		Andrijadj: Eeeeeeeeasy...To quote Bobby Fischer:)

Jun-18-09		BlackWaive: Almost got this one. I recognized that 23. h4! was the correct move, which applies pressure to the defender of the Knight. Black's only logical move is 23...Qxh4, since all other options lose to 24. Nf5 or 24. Ng4. So I went with 23. h4 Qxh4 24. g3 Nh3+ 25. Kg2 Qh6 26. Ng4? After checking the game position, I realize that 26. Ng4 is refuted by ...Qe6!, where White cannot capture the opposing Knight without losing his own due to the pin. The game continuation works because after 25. Nf5! Qe6 26. Kxh3 g6 White has the 27. Qg4! interposition, pinning the Black g-pawn to the King: Expunging a pin with a stronger, interposing pin! Such an oversight would have cost me the game, if not an inferior position.

Jun-18-09		areknames: <BlackWaive: Almost got this one. I recognized that 23. h4! was the correct move, which applies pressure to the defender of the Knight. Black's only logical move is 23...Qxh4, since all other options lose to 24. Nf5 or 24. Ng4. So I went with 23. h4 Qxh4 24. g3 Nh3+ 25. Kg2 Qh6 26. Ng4? After checking the game position, I realize that 26. Ng4 is refuted by ...Qe6!, where White cannot capture the opposing Knight without losing his own due to the pin.> I saw 23.h4, which puts Black under the pump but, alas, I too selected 26.Ng4? so I can't take credit for this one. <The game continuation works because after 25. Nf5! Qe6 26. Kxh3 g6 White has the 27. Qg4! interposition, pinning the Black g-pawn to the King: Expunging a pin with a stronger, interposing pin!> Yes, and 27..h5 is met by 28.Qg5, after which White's king will have time to retreat back from h3 (Black's king can't move away from the g file), thus saving the knight. Quite an exquisite combination.

Jun-18-09		Fezzik: While I found h4! and all the variations, I was surprised that Black chose the most obvious line. I don't know who Elseth is, but he didn't seem to fight very hard. (I would categorize this week's theme as queen deflections, not pins.)

Jun-18-09		Once: As Chubby Checker might have said: "Let's deflect again, like we did last puzzle." From white's point of view, the only tactically exciting feature of the puzzle is the vulnerability of the black knight on f4. It is currently protected by an "I take, he takes" arrangement - it is defended once and attacked once. So we automatically think about shifting this equation in our fsavour by either adding more attackers or taking some of the defenders. Adding more attackers doesn't work in this case because the knight would simply run away. In general, adding attackers only works when the vulnerable piece is pinned or has no sensible flight squares. So we need to deflecr the queen. There is only one way to do this - h4, followed by the knight jump to f5 or the pawn fork g3 (depending on how black moves his queen). The hard work then comes to see if black can wriggle out by using the same trick against the white knight. The hardest line to see is arguably this one: 23. h4 Qxh4 24. g3 Nh3+ 25. Kg2 Qh6 26. Nf5 Qe6 27. Kxh3 g6 28. Qg4 h5 click for larger view Black is trying to win the white knight with the same trick of kicking at the knight's defenders. And he has the added bonus that the white knight is pinned against the white king. However, white can sidestep all of this with 29. Qg5. From this strong square, the queen can't be kicked away again. She defends the knight by pinning the g6 pawn. And if black tries to move his king to get out of the pin (say by Kf8, Kh6 or Kh7) then mate follows with Qg6+ and Qg7#.

Jun-18-09		agb2002: Material is even. Black seems to threaten to incorporate the rook on d8 into attack with ... Rd6 and ... Rg6 or ... Rh6. However, the black queen is busy defending her knight. This suggests 23.h4: A) 23... Qxh4 24.g3 Nh3+ 25.Kg2 Qh6 26.Rh1 + -. B) 23... Qh6 24.Nf5 + -. C) 23... Qf6 24.Ng4 Qd6 25.Rad1 + -. D) 23... Qe5 24.Ng4 Qd6 25.Rad1 + -.

Jun-18-09		banjo: i can't believe it but i trapped myself ;-) in the line played i thought i would go 26. Ng4? Qh5?? 27.Nf6 but after 26. - Qe6 27.K:h3 h5! i blundered my own horse . that's why i'm a patzer !

Jun-18-09		remolino: White to play, 23.? "Medium" Equal material. In fact, Black seems better developed, e.g., rooks on central files, knight and queen threatening king. White has extra pawn in the center but it cannot produce a threat now. So if there is "something" for white immediately, it most be tactical and due to the placing of knight and queen - queen is protecting the knight but perhaps it can be driven away from this protection. Queen can protect knight from h4, h6, g5, f4, e5, d6. All those squares can be attacked with pawn, knight or rook. That suggests: 23. h4! A. 23...Qh6, 24.Nf5 B. 23...Qe5, 24.Ng4 C. 23...Qf6, 24.Ng4 D. 23...Qxh4, 24.g3 Nh6+, 25.Kg2 Qh6, 26.Rh8 Let's see how I did today. Time to check.

Jun-18-09		remolino: Instead of 26. Rh1 (not h8) in my line, evidently 26. Nf5 is better...

Jun-18-09		Marmot PFL: Black's position looks quite attractive at first, until it's seen that the knught is only protected by the queen, and this can be atacked by 23 h4, eventually winninng the horse. Instead of resigning though black might try 27...g6 28 Qg4 Rd2 which gets 2 pawns for the piece and some practical chances, if for instance white was short of time.

Jun-18-09		hedgeh0g: I was pretty pleased to get this one as it's a fairly unusual puzzle.

Jun-18-09		johnlspouge: Thursday (Medium): Shabalov vs R Elseth, 1991 (23.?) White to play and win. Material: Even. The Black Kg8 has 2 legal moves, both on the back rank. The Black Qg5 is burdened with the protection of Nf4, indicating possibilities for overloading. The Black position otherwise appears very solid. The White Kg1 is vulnerable to check (23…Nxh3+ and 23…Qxg2+), but is adequately protected. Candidates (23.): h4 23.h4 (overloading Qg5, which must maintain contact with Nf4) (1) 23…Qf6 [or Qh6 or Qe5] 24.Ng4 Qd6 25.Rad1 Black must finally abandon Nf4. (2) 23…Qxh4 24.g3 (forking Nf4 and Qh4) 24…Nh3+ [Qh5 25.Qxf4] 25.Kg2 Qh6 [else, drop Nh3] 26.Nf5 (threatening 27.Nxh6+) [26.Rh1 Ng5 27.Rxh6 Nxf6 wins for Black] [26.Ng4 Qe6 27.Kxh3 h5, and Black wins Ng4 back.] 26…Qe6 27.Qg4 (threatening 28.Qxg7#) 27…g6 28.Kxh3 White maintains the pin on Pg7 and wins N for P at last. My variation differs from the game in the last move, but Toga says best play is a transposition.

Jun-18-09		Major Dude: Son of a........... My streak ends at 3. I did actually contemplate h4, but didn't spend any time on it.

Jun-18-09		zanshin: I missed this one - but I think I should have gotten it. I know it's always easier when someone has shown you how. Also, I'm a little irritated at how quickly Rybka finds h4.

Jun-18-09		Antonius Blok: I also found 23.h4 Qxh4 but 24.Nf5 and if 24... Qf6 25.Qxf4 g6 26.Nh6+ Kg7 27.Qh5 or Qe3

Jun-18-09		CHESSTTCAMPS: Material is even, with white having a kingside pawn majority. Black is a tempo ahead in development with the R on d8, but the Nf4 is vulnerable, protected only by a queen with somewhat limited mobility. White can win the knight, but it looks messy. 23.h4! White offers a pawn to decoy the Q into a fork. Looking at acceptance first, A) 23...Qxh4 24.g3 Nh3+ (Q-moves 25.Qxf4) 25.Kg2 Qh6 26.Nf5! (not 26.Rh1? Ng5) Qe6! 27.Qg4 g6 28.Kxh3 Rd2 29.Kg2 Rxc2 30.Re3 White has N for 2Ps and has freed the Ra1 to go to h1 with strong kingside attacking chances. Wrong is A.1) 26.Ng4 Qe6 27.Kxh3 h5 and black is better. A plausible alternative is A.2) 27.Kxh3 g6 28.Kg2 gxf5 29.exf5 Qf6 with a small advantage to white. A.2.1) 29... Qxe1 30.Rxe1 Rxe1 31.f6 Kh8 32.Qg4 Rg8 33.Qd7 Rf8 34.Qxc7 Re6 35.g4 looks strong for white but I don't see a clear win. Black alternatives to 28... Rd2: A.3) 28... h5 29.Qg5 does not help black. K moves are met by Qh6+ then Qg7#. A.4) 28... Kf8 29.Ne3 with a solid extra piece. Declines of the h-pawn leave black with no good way to defend the knight: B) 23... Qh6 24.Nf5 Qe6 (f6, g6, h5) 25.Qxf4 wins C) 23... Qf6 (or Qe5) 24.Ng4 Qd6 25.Rad1 wins. So it seems that best play is A (main line) where white must play accurately to maintain an advantage. Time to see what I've missed...

Jun-18-09		gofer: 23 h4 ... Option 1 - move the queen away from the pawn but try to defend the knight 23 ... Qh6/Qf6/Qd5 24 Ng4 Qd6 25 Rad1 Qe7 26 Rxd8 Rxd8 27 Qxf4 Qxh5 28 Qxc7 h5 29 Ne5 Rf8 30 Qxa7 winning easily... Option 2a - take the pawn and hope to defend the knight 23 ... Qxh4 24 g6 Nf3+ 25 Kg2 Ng5 26 gxh4 Nxf3 27 Kxf3 winning easily... Option 2b - take the pawn and hope to defend the knight slightly better 23 ... Qxh4 24 g6 Qg5 25 Qxf4 Qxf4 26 gxf4 Rxe4 27 Nd5!! The knight can be taken, but only in exchange for the rook, if black swaps off the rooks with 27 ... Rxe1 28 Rxe1 then the knight is still immune as there is a back rank mate to contend with. The f4 pawn is now protected and only Rd4 is going to going to avoid the rook from being swapped off next move and that ends in further gloom for black 27 ... Rd4 28 Ne7+ Kf8 29 Nc6 forking the rooks game over! So can black somehow protect the pawn on c7? Nope! 27 ... Rxd1 28 Rxd1 Rd7 29 Re8# 27 ... Rxd1 28 Rxd1 Rc8 29 Ne7+ 27 ... Rxd1 28 Rxd1 c6 29 Ne7+ Kf8 30 Nxc6 So white is now only one pawn up (rather than two) for a knight that's been lost and its all over... So did black give up after 23 h4 or after 27 Nd5 ??? Time to check...

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