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Paul Boersma vs Peter Mack
"Return of the Mack" (game of the day Jul-25-2022)
1st EEC Team Championship (1975), Ostend BEL, rd 3, Sep-20
Sicilian Defense: Lasker-Pelikan. Sveshnikov Variation (B33)  ·  0-1

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
a
1
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
White to move.
ANALYSIS [x]
0-1

rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1
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Kibitzer's Corner
Jul-25-22
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: Wasn't that one of Richard Pryors early movies?
Jul-25-22  ChessHigherCat: I vaguely remember an IM telling me that 7. Bg5 is the only good move here. Is that still gospel?
Jul-25-22
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: <CHC>, not sure about that, but at move seven, Nd5 and a4 have been ways of avoiding the well-trodden main lines, which were played to death in the 1970s and 80s; all one need do is pick up any Informator from those days. The Lasker-Pelikan was a bloody tabiya, and not for the faint-hearted.
Jul-25-22
Premium Chessgames Member
  PawnSac: Im with perf on this.. im not so quick to claim absolutes in these positions
Jul-25-22  Cheapo by the Dozen: Very trappy in the last few moves.
Jul-25-22  Messiah: If this is the best pun you can come up with, then why the ever loving hell I'm paying the subscription is the deepest, most indecipherable, most baffling enigma ever.
Jul-25-22  Messiah: 'pun'
Jul-25-22
Premium Chessgames Member
  An Englishman: Good Evening: Does the title refer to a song about Mack the Knife from The Threepenny Opera?

7.a4 is satisfactory, but 7.Nd5 seems the preference amongst the Super-GMs, appearing frequently in the Caruana-Carlsen match. Experience seems to indicate that 10.Bc4 and later 12.Ne3 might have worked better.

Jul-25-22
Premium Chessgames Member
  Check It Out: Return of the Mack

https://youtu.be/uB1D9wWxd2w

Jul-25-22  goodevans: Great game, even if the pun is rather mediocre.

The exchange sac was brilliant and after 22...bxa6 Black was totally dominant. Curious then that (through 24...Bg7? and 25...Bc4?) he allowed White to simplify to an endgame where he had to win the game all over again. Maybe he didn't realise just how overwhelming his advantage was?

Jul-25-22  TheaN: <goodevans: Great game, even if the pun is rather mediocre.

The exchange sac was brilliant and after 22...bxa6 Black was totally dominant. Curious then that (through 24...Bg7? and 25...Bc4?) he allowed White to simplify to an endgame where he had to win the game all over again. Maybe he didn't realise just how overwhelming his advantage was?>

Black played into the tenet "when up material, simplify". With Bg7 he prepared to castle; after that the king's safe and the bishop pair will win. White's simplification is objectively best, but it plays horribly (essentially a piece down). Moves like 24....Bc5 and 25....Bb7 feel very computeresque; SF calculates the bishops are fine, Mack probably just wanted to reinforce the position.

Jul-25-22  goodevans: <TheaN: Black played into the tenet "when up material, simplify">

I dare say that had something to do with it and it often makes sense but you'd expect players of this calibre to apply such tenets judiciously.

<With Bg7 he prepared to castle; after that the king's safe and the bishop pair will win.>

I was about to say that other moves with that same B would achieve the same thing when I saw that 24...Bb4+ 25.Kc2 is rather awkward for Black (and also the motivation behind White's strange looking 24.Rd1). Perhaps this was why Black chose 24...Bg7, not seeing that 24...Bc5 25.Kc2 could be met excellently with 25...Bd4. This now seems to me the most likely explanation behind Black's baffling choices.

<White's simplification is objectively best, but it plays horribly (essentially a piece down).>

Allowing the simplification also cost Black a central pawn so I think the evaluation 'essentially a piece down' is no longer on the mark. From a materialistic standpoint, I would say that winning that pawn cut White's deficit nearly in half.

Mar-14-23  Aminda: Perfidious refers to a Lasker-Pelikan game, but I cannot find it on CG. Could it refer to another game?

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