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Mikhail Tal vs Rafael Vaganian
Dubna (1973), Dubna URS, rd 1, Dec-06
French Defense: Tarrasch Variation. Guimard Defense Main Line (C04)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Given 43 times; par: 11 [what's this?]

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Kibitzer's Corner
Aug-07-02
Premium Chessgames Member
  Sneaky: Ah, I finally see it!

When I saw this combination on the homepage I thought "easy! Qf3 threatens mate, but after the forced Qd7 then comes Nxc5 this allows the queen to invade." Working with this idea, the line I came up with was 11. Qf3 Qd7 12. Nxc5 Qxc5 13. Qf7+ Kd8 14. Qxe5?? which I thought was a clever way to snatch a pawn (...Bxd6 15. Nxd6+ wins the queen back)

One little wrinkle. After 14. Qxe5?? Black simply plays ...Qxc2 and the White queen is trapped! (15. Qf7 Bd4+ 16. Kf1 Qd1#)

Tal, however, knew that "only fools rush in." First, the attacker must provoke weaknesses to justify the attack. Qh5!+ is just the ticket, as this can only be met with g6, which weakens the f6 square.

And so the REAL answer to this problem is: 11. Qh5+! g6 12. Qf3 Qd7 13. Nxc5 Qxc5 14. Qf7+ Kd8 15. Qf6+ snatching the rook.

Notice that this combination really began with 10. Bxc6, for if 10. Qh5+ g6 11. Qf3 Black simply plays Nxe5. So to answer the age-old question of how many moves a GM sees ahead, I would say "at least five."

Nov-27-05  Chopin: Tal makes this game look so easy. Nice play by Tal; again that's not saying much.
Feb-17-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: Wow, there are a lot of notation errors in the above analysis.
Jan-29-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  Richard Taylor: <Sneaky: Ah, I finally see it!

When I saw this combination on the homepage I thought "easy! Qf3 threatens mate, but after the forced Qd7 then comes Nxc5 this allows the queen to invade." Working with this idea, the line I came up with was 11. Qf3 Qd7 12. Nxc5 Qxc5 13. Qf7+ Kd8 14. Qxe5?? which I thought was a clever way to snatch a pawn (...Bxd6 15. Nxd6+ wins the queen back)>

Here you meant 11. Qf3 Qe7 12. Nxc5 Qxc5 13. Qf7+ Kd8 14. Qxe6 which is clever idea but on e6! e5 is too far away....

Jan-29-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  Richard Taylor: And your 15. ... Bd4+ should be Bb4+
Mar-05-12  iamdeafzed: Looks like 10)...bxc6 was the move that really lost it here for black.
Mar-13-13  G.Snowman: 12. ... Qxg5, 13. Bxg5 Nxb3 can it be a alternative to prolong mate?
Nov-17-15  Zugzwangovich: Ahhh...the wonderful Wizard of Oz (Riga)!!
Mar-08-16
Premium Chessgames Member
  tpstar: Cute miniature, also a Daily Puzzle from 2002.

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