| Dec-19-03 | | patzer2: DeFirmian is quickly defeated by Pons in this Lasker-Pelikan Sicilian after the pretty deflection sacrifice 18...Nxc2! After this move, DeFirmian finds himself overwhelmed by a series of Black Pins. Although Kasparov and Keene give the seldom played 7. a4 as equalizing in BCO, it has not been all that good for White lately, as in this game and Efimenko vs P Smirnov, 2003 I think DeFirmian should have played the much more popular 7. Bg5 (given as unclear by Kasparov and Keene in BCO) as in the White wins in Kramnik vs Radjabov, 2003 or Judit Polgar vs Radjabov, 2003 However, be forewarned that 7. Bg5 doesn't leave Black without good opportunity, and is double edged, as in Black's nice win in Shirov vs Leko, 2003 |
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| Dec-20-03 | | euripides: Yes, a beautiful game. 22...Rc2 seems to win as well - White is absolutely overwhelmed by the pins by that stage. Interesting how 12...Qe7 does not turn out to hamper Black's mobility to any great extent - de Firmian might have expected the blockage of the backsquared bishop to cause more trouble. |
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| Feb-27-04 | | Whitehat1963: Very effectively played by Vallejo Pons! |
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| Dec-11-04 | | sergeidave: Awesome! Vallejo Pons didn't even castle! Great game! |
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| Dec-28-04 | | PinkPanther: DeFirmian didn't castle either, what's your point? |
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| Apr-23-05 | | aw1988: Is "Milk" a village or something, like "Nice"? |
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| Nov-03-05 | | dakgootje: lol nice game :)
Maybe some kind of tournament sponsered by a diary? :P
Good game for GOTD... |
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| Dec-31-05 | | Queens Gambit: Beatifull Sicilian by Vallejo!! |
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| Dec-31-05 | | syracrophy: The position of white collapsed as a tower on an earthquake! An instructive attack by black! An unforgivable massacre! I wanna notice some points of this game:
7.a4?! <I'm not a grandmaster, but I don't find no productive sense to this move. Accurate was the simple 7.Bg5 continuing with the lines of this opening> 22.Qa1? <Moves the queen to the corner, where it will do anything to protect the king from the coming attack. Correct was 22.Bc4 leading to 22...Qxg2 23.Ke2 Bd3+ 24.Bxd3 Rxc1 25.Rxc1 Bxd2 26.Rc8+ Ke7 27.Rxh8 Qxh1 28.Kxd2 Qxf3 which wins two rooks and two bishops for the queen, a rook, a knight and two pawns> 22...Bc2?! <The only meaningful mistake. Correct was 22...Rc2! 23.Be2 Bxd2+ 24.Kf1 0-0 25.h4 Qe7 26.Bc4 Rdd8 winning a knight> 24.g3? <Desesperation is the reason of the worst mistakes. Better was 24.Qc1 leading to 24...Bf5 25.Qa1 Rc2 26.Be2 Rxd2 27.Rxd2 Qxd2+ 28.Kf1 0-0, which wins a rook for a rook and a knight> After 27...Rd8 28.Kf1 Rxd2 29.Qe1 0-0 and black has an easy win |
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| Mar-11-06 | | thundershock2k: pretty cool game! |
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| May-30-08 | | Samagonka: No way out for Nick. |
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| May-30-08 | | Jesspatrick: The idea of 7.a4 for White is well motivated. It seeks to prevent ...b5 and permit the N on a3 to re-enter the battle via c4. The downside of this plan is that it's nearly impossible to prevent Black from freeing himself with an eventual ...d5. This game is a good demonstration. |
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| May-30-08 | | Pianoplayer: Continuous attack on d2, a great,great game. |
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| May-30-08 | | newzild: As a player whose repertoire includes 7.a4 in the Lasker-Pelikan, I must say this game is somewhat disquieting.
Maybe 18.Be3 is better - doesn't look great, though, because the e1-h4 diagonal is weakened and white can pile up on c2 with Qg6 and Bf5..
A Morphy-like attack by Vallejo-Pons! |
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May-30-08
 | | playground player: Gee, that turned out badly for Black; and it looked so good for him, for a while...sigh. That's chess. |
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| May-30-08 | | kevin86: I see that cg.com "borrowed" my comment on this game and made it the pun for GOTD. Since this is Friday,I will be giving them a break,but they will be hearing from my liars on Monday morning,lol. A good attack by black!
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| May-30-08 | | tatarch: Very graceful win for Pons. And am I the only one who finds a guilty pleasure in seeing top players get tied down like this? |
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May-30-08
 | | Bobsterman3000: wow, why can't Vallejo play like this all the time... |
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| May-31-08 | | Confuse: <playground player> black won. <pinkpanther> Excellent point. DeFirmian's not castling was equally impressive. Except that he lost. |
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| May-31-08 | | cydmd: <syracrophy> brought us the finish. That line has an ingenious trap. 27...Rd8 28.Kf1 Rxd2 29.Qe1 Rxb2? threatening capturing the white queen with 30... Rb1. But 30.Bb5+ captures the black queen !! That's why castling is the move to play: keep the same threat and avoid that undesirable check. |
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| May-27-14 | | SpiritedReposte: Candidate for the "Immortal Pinning Game". |
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| Jul-04-17 | | TheBish: The engine prefers 22...Rc2 (instead of 22...Bc2), which I played in Guess the Move... and was only given 2 points partial credit! |
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| Jul-04-17 | | ChessHigherCat: 12. Nxe5??? is a poison pawn because of d4! 13. Bxd4 Qxd4 15. Qxd4 Nxc2+! |
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| Jul-04-17 | | ChessHigherCat: <TheBish: The engine prefers 22...Rc2 (instead of 22...Bc2), which I played in Guess the Move... and was only given 2 points partial credit!> Me too, when I saw Bc2, I thought who cares about the exchange in this position? Rc2 and white has nothing better than Be2 to create a flight square for his king, right? |
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Kibitzing
sac: 18...Nxc2+