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Samuel Reshevsky vs Mikhail Tal
Herceg Novi blitz (1970) (blitz), Herceg Novi YUG, rd 9, Apr-08
Benoni Defense: King Pawn lines (A65)  ·  0-1

ANALYSIS [x]

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Kibitzer's Corner
Apr-28-04  PinkPanther: Tal's tactical vision isn't even fair. In this game he makes Resvhevky look like a complete fool.
Apr-28-04  Jim Bartle: Agreed, but I don't think Tal saw this through to the end. (from move 21), but just liked what he saw a few moves ahead.
Apr-28-04  PinkPanther: Well of course not, nobody could have seen that far in advance.
Dec-30-04  Poisonpawns: Wow,Tal rips reshevesky up good here.It seems like a lot of these GM`s in Tal`s time fell to these benoni attacks, and looking at Tals games it seems as if he is playing the same game basically in the benoni, so my question is this:Why do these guys seem so unprepared in these games ? or was Tal just that good?
Jun-08-05  bomb the bishop: yes, Tal was that good! too bad for him, sickness did not allow him to create what would have been hundreds of similar games, he was a mastermind after all
Jun-08-05  ughaibu: You misunderstand the relevence of Tal's sickness, the candle that burns most brightly burns half as long.
Jun-08-05  bomb the bishop: well maybe, however I do know that he left important tournaments unnatended because of his sickness, have you seen the movie Luzin's Defense? I can't recall the title very well so it may not be called this way, but it shows how sickness can destroy a player's entuthiasm towards chess
Jun-08-05  Poisonpawns: Luzhin Defense :-) was a good movie indeed.It made my girl cry and she liked it,if it does that!! it is a great chess movie.Back to the Benoni:I think that systems involving the early move f3,instead of putting the knight on f3 give the benoni the roughest time.
Mar-07-06  Dres1: 9.e5 would have given black a nice loss real quick in this game
Mar-08-06  RookFile: Well, it may have. Certainly that is a critical move in this line of the Benoni. However, this was a blitz game. Is it a good idea to get into a tactical slugfest with Tal in a 5 minute game?
Mar-09-06  Dres1: well, e5 is just the logical next move after Bb5+ and f4... he let black off the hook if you ask me.. e5 is lethal because it looks like that pawn can make it to e6 and win a piece.. Naaaimean?
Dec-30-07  Seraphina: Ah, Tal... thank goodness there were no computers around in his day to take away the dash... That's perhaps why the preparation wasn't so great.

Luzhin's Defence... originally a book, The Defense by Vladimir Nabokov. I found the film to be utter rubbish from beginning to end, boring, murky, sobby, and without the fabulous pizzazz of the book and particularly its ending (which I shall not reveal)... It reminded me of those silly movies with a sort of happy end tacked on the back because the audience could not take it otherwise, according to the producers.

Dec-30-07  RookFile: Reshevsky should have played one of his slow English systems with 1. c4.
Dec-30-07
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: <Dres1> 9.e5 is considered the best line in a position usually reached by the move-order 7.f4 Bg7 8.Bb5+ Nbd7, though the resulting positions are complex and it's easy for White to go wrong. In one of several games I played in this line as White long ago, I recall going down a theoretical line which was considered winning for White, but only won after a blunder by me and a worse one by my 2300 opponent.
Aug-22-08  wouldpusher: Sammy could have had a good game with 25. ♔e1!

Much more effective than 21. ... ♘xg4 is 21. ... ♗xg4!, where 22. hxg4 ♖xg4+ 23. ♕xg4 ♘xg4 or 22. ♕d4 ♗xh3+ 23. ♔f2 ♘f5 24. ♗xf5 ♖xf5+ 25. ♔g3 ♗xf1 is sufficient to win.

Aug-22-08  whiteshark: An entertaining 5-Minute chess game.
Mar-04-12  iamdeafzed: Rybka 'thinks' both sides made some pretty substantial mistakes in this game. Someone implied that this was only a 5-minute game, which I can believe.

Here's the rundown, by move #, and according to Rybka (at fairly low depth calculation):

9.) 'Thinks' e5 was indeed better, as a few others mentioned here. Indeed, e5 is THE thematic break for white against the Benoni and those early variations where white forces through an early e5 (e.g. Taimanov) are undoubtedly one reason why the Benoni has lost popularity in more recent times.

13...) 'Thinks' Qa5 was better than Tal's Nc5, which took an eye off e5 and allowed Reshevsky's next move.

16.) Much preferred Nd2, presumably with the intention of targeting black's c pawn, and probably the d6 square ultimately. The text move just seems to weaken white's king side defenses prematurely.

18.) 'Believes' f5 was a bit better, although it ultimately prefers a5 over both. For reasons I'm somewhat unsure of.

21.) 'Thinks' this was one of Reshevsky's big mistakes in this game, much preferring Rf4, probably with the intention of supporting white's g-pawn, and his king side in general. Which Reshevsky's earlier g4 weakened considerably. Apparently Reshevsky didn't see his king side pawns as being vulnerable.

...21.) 'Thinks' Bxg4 was a lot stronger. Although the text move was Rybka's second choice.

...22.) 'Thinks' Rxg4 was considerably stronger than the text (which was also Rybka's second choice).

25.) 'Thinks' Ke1 was much better than what Reshevsky chose, which was Rybka's least favorite of white's three choices.

28.) 'Believes' this is essentially where white lost the game, as interposing any one of the minor pieces in front of the rook would have been considerably better than moving the king, which Rybka evaluates as about -3.00. Probably because the text move allows the rook skewer that Tal played on his next move.

29.) Much prefers Kc5, but basically thinks white is lost at this point anyway (-3.07 evaluation).

These were by no means the only imperfections in the play according to Rybka; only the most salient ones.

Conclusion: Reshevsky's big mistakes were underestimating Tal's attack against his king side, as well as his Kd4 move which allowed the fatal rook skewer. Tal's biggest mistake was misplaying some combinations, which he probably played more on intuition than calculation. Oh, and both players did a hell of a lot better than I ever could have.

Mar-05-12  RookFile: Herceg Novi 1970 was one of the most famous blitz tournaments held, with Fischer lapping the field.
Apr-06-12  SMCB1997: This line of the Modern Benoni is a risky one, but many Benoni players have given it up due to a series of losses. And as fir the threat 9. e5, which many of you think wins a piece, it actually gives black a huge attack. 9. e5 dxe5
10. fxe5 Nh5
11. e6 Qh4+ and black has a scary attack. Does that clear things up a bit?

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