| Aug-26-08 | | thathwamasi: Wow...I am sure Topa's watching |
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| Aug-26-08 | | Marmot PFL: Topalov is not the type to send his queen out on such excursions (i don't think). 55.Qh5?? has to be the blunder of the tournament, and maybe Moro's career. |
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| Aug-26-08 | | Hesam7: <55.Qh5?? has to be the blunder of the tournament, and maybe Moro's career> So what are the alternatives?? |
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| Aug-26-08 | | Aspirador: 55.Qxf4 of course. But not sure if this is drawn or not. |
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| Aug-26-08 | | Hesam7: <aspirador> 55.Qxf4 gxf4 56.Kg4 Bg5 does not look any better for White. The point is that this is not obvious at all so calling it <the blunder of the tournament, and maybe Moro's career> is quite absurd. |
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| Aug-26-08 | | euripides: There's some neat footwork in the K+P ending e.g. 62.Ke3 and 64...Ke4 each wangle a tempo nicely. |
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Aug-26-08
 | | tamar: <Hesam7> But after 56...Bg5 57 g4
click for larger viewThis would seem to seal the draw, since if 57...Bh6 the pawn makes it h5 and the King can toggle between g4 and f3. |
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| Aug-26-08 | | Marmot PFL: <Hesam7> Can you find a bigger mistake? Unless someone missed mate in one or left something en pris I would be skeptical. He misses an obvious queen trade that turns a dead draw into a dead loss, and costs him any realistic chance of first place. This is not to diminish Kamsky's fine play BTW. |
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| Aug-26-08 | | acirce: It does appear that 54.Qxf4 actually draws but it is definitely not obvious (and especially so in time trouble!) 54.Qh5 probably qualifies as a blunder but even then not such a grave one IMO. |
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Aug-26-08
| | tamar: Moro may have thought both moves 54 Qxf4 and 54 Qh5 were draws, and taken the one that preserved his slim winning chances. If so, his blunder was one of over-optimism. |
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Aug-26-08
 | | chancho: Gotta feel bad for Moro. He's leading the tournament and then two losses in a row, and the house comes a tumbling down. Real bummer. |
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| Aug-26-08 | | euripides: I think it should be <54>.Qxf4.
<tamar> I think in your position Black has a winning plan bringing the king round via c6 to attack the d pawn. If White plays g7 Black has Bxg7 Kxf4 Bh6 keeping the king out. I did read earlier that there was a draw but a difficult one to find. Maybe the idea is <54.Qxf4 gxf4 55.Kg4 Bg5> 56.d5 exd5 57.Kxg5 f3 58.e6 Kf8 59.Kh6. If Morozevich missed something like this I wouldn't personally call it a blunder at all. |
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Aug-26-08
 | | Jimfromprovidence: <Hesam7><5<4>.Qxf4 gxf4 5<5>.Kg4 Bg5 does not look any better for White.> Follow-up with 56 d5. That looks like it draws, whether it’s 56…exd5 or 56…f3 following, but it sure is not easy to see.
click for larger view |
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Aug-26-08
| | tamar: <euripides> You may be right. For some reason I never considered the King march to c6, thinking it was glued to g7 to keep the f4 pawn. Quite an interesting endgame, if White has to find 56 d5. Does anyone have the complete line?
<Hesam7> My line doesn't quite work, so disregard :) |
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| Aug-26-08 | | acirce: Kamsky missed the probably winning shot 27..Nxg2!! earlier:
click for larger view28.Kxg2 Bxf3+ 29.Kxf3 Qd5+ and amazingly there seems to be no way out although I would never pretend to understand much of this myself. (Thanks Rybka!) For example 30.Kg3 Bh4+! 31.Kxh4 Qg2 
click for larger viewand apparently White is lost despite two pieces up. Rybka's main line after some thought: 32.Bc6 g5+ 33.Kh5 Qxh2+ 34.Kg4 Qh4+ 35.Kf3 Qxe1 36.Qc5 g4+ 37.Kxg4 f5+ 38.Kf3 f4 -2.38 Note: after instead 30.Kf4, Black has 30..Bg5+! and 31.Kg3 Bh4+ is the same while if 31.Kxg5 Qf3 White is soon mated. Quite neat echo. 30.Re4 might be the "best" but it is also tough after 30..f5 31.Qxe7 Qxe4+ 32.Kf2 Qf4+ 33.Ke2 Qxc1 34.Qxe6+ Kh8 -1.6 
click for larger viewPerhaps not immediately obvious why this is so hopeless but Rybka's analysis seems convincing. |
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Aug-26-08
| | tamar: Incredible line! |
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Aug-27-08
| | tamar: GM Golubov in Chess Today gives the draw
54 Qxf4 gxf4 55 Kg4 Bg5 56 d5! f3 (if 56...exd5 57 Kxg5 f3 58 e6 Kf8 59 Kh6 f2
60 g7+ Ke7 61 g8Q f1Q=) 57 Kxf3 exd5 58 Kg4 Bh6 59 Kf5 Kf8 60 e6 Bg7 61 h4 Ke7 62 h5 d4 (62...Kd6? 63 h6 wins for White) 63 Ke4 Kxe6 64 h6 with a draw 
click for larger view |
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Aug-28-08
 | | An Englishman: Good Evening: Quite a remarkable contest in the Advance Caro-Kann, one that shows up the complexities that either side can create. I thought that Kamsky didn't have quite enough for the pawn, but <acirce's> work with Rybka is astonishing. |
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| Aug-28-08 | | DoctorD: I don't see this as an advanced tactic. It's a typical decoy sacrifice, or the better German term, Hineinziehungsopfer, designed to lure the WK into a mating net. I'd be interested in knowing the GM's thought process here because g2 is obviously "the new f2" here, the weakest square on the board because it is only guarded by the king. So Nxg2 is screaming to be played. You'll look at Qd5 to follow first, but realizing that 2. Bxf3+ is always there, you will analyze that next. And then, as the GMs have noted, you just "invert the sequence." Then you look for the king hunt. Don't worry about a lack of pieces, if you can get the king to the edge of the board, the queen has no challengers. I can't see a good point to Nf5 except for the fact that it withdraws an important piece from capture. A bit of a Stumperzug, really. |
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| Aug-28-08 | | boz: This game will bring happiness to that curious species, the Caro-Kann practitioner. |
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| Aug-28-08 | | CharlesSullivan: Wonderful work by <acirce>! I also agree with him when he says of his last diagram,
click for larger view
<Perhaps not immediately obvious why this is so hopeless...> The computer would have no problems winning the position, of course, but consider the "best-play" continuation 35.Qc4 Qg1 36.Qc5. If Black impatiently takes the h-pawn with 36...Qxh2+, there follows 37.Kd3 Qh3+ 38.Kc2 Qg2+ 39.Kc3 Qf3+ 40.Kb4
click for larger view
and White has excellent practical chances to hold this game because of his good passed pawns and "relatively" safe king's position. Therefore, Black should play 36...Rd8! to maintain his winning chances -- although he still has to be careful: if 37.e6 then taking the h-pawn once again leads to a probable draw. |
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| Sep-08-08 | | DoctorD: acirce thanks for the analysis of 27. ... Nxg2.
I provoked some controversy on at least one chess website when I made the comment that I didn't find the move all that hard to find, and had, in fact seen it when looking at the game live. Many of the comments not for a site for family viewing (!), but whether you believe that "only Rybka" can find something like this, or if you believe, as I do, that the sacrifice can be found, some interesting notes that speak rather *against* my assertion: 1. I did a database review of Nxg2/Nxg7 sacrifices and came up basically empty. This is not an especially familiar pattern, it seems. 2. The most interesting finding was seeing that Znosko-Borovsky in The Art of Chess Combination devotes a chapter to assaults on the g2/g7 pawn, and also
notes it to be rare, for a number of
reasons I never considered (such as the improbablity of keeping Knights on f4 and h4, prime attacking spots for g2). He even notes that it should be simple - a point usually only guarded by the king (I kept calling it "the new f2" which probably only served to confuse). 3. I suppose the difficulty is in noting the drawing out of the king and his subsequent immobility after Qg2! I think the problem in seeing this relates to not considering all forcing moves - checks and nonchecks - in the evaluation. Bh4+ is very natural, but seems to be the sticking point for most of my detractors, claiming I "couldn't" have seen it. Kamsky's own comments would probably be the most interesting. |
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| Sep-08-08 | | DoctorD: The commentary by Charles Sullivan regarding 30. Re4 also much appreciated. Re4 was "thrown up to me" as something I could not have seen the consequences of in full. I heartily agree! But it was easy to see that at best white only *might* hold the game at that point, as that excellent analysis shows. But isn't that the very nature of speculative sacrifice? If you can see that "all other continuations" aren't that great for White and another is clearly winning, the speculative nature diminishes. I personally dimissed Re4 as a defense once I saw c1 falls - that is my possible failure point here, I think. Debate certainly welcome. |
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Kibitzing
sac: 59...Bxd4