YouRang: This was Mamedov's (black) only loss at Baku, but his position collapsed quickly. It appears that his problems started on move 10 [diagram]
 click for larger view
He played the reasonable looking <10...Bc5> to challenge white's DSB, but the exchange of bishops left black's d6 square rather weak, and white wasted no time planting his knight there: <11.Bxc5 bxb5 12.e5! Nd5 13.Nd6+> forcing the king to move, thus wrecking black's ability to castle [diagram]
 click for larger view
This knight brought havoc to black, and the game quickly went downhill <13...Ke7 14.f5!> [diagram]
 click for larger view
The f5 pawn advance carries more threats:
- The queen can move laterally to f4, g4 or h4 (with check). - Once the queen moves, it vacates c4 allowing the LSB to attack the black queen from b5 (thanks to the knight). - Of course, the pawn itself threatens fxe6, breaking up the defense around black's locked-in-the-center king. <14...f6 15.Qg4! fxe5 16.Bb5! Qxd6 17.Qxg7+> winning the exchange with check, to be followed up with the strong <19.O-O-O!> pinning black's knight, and this pin ultimately finished off black a few moves later. |