Jun-25-14 Polugaevsky vs A Khasin, 1961
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| Babes: 20. Bxh6 is also quite strong e.g. 20...gxh6 21. Qxh6 Rfc8 22. Re4 Nxe4 23. Bxe4 Qxe4 24. fxe4 Bxe4 25. Qf4 with an easy win. Am I missing something at Black's 21st move? |
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May-18-14 Gelfand vs Nakamura, 2014
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Babes: Gelfand should be lost anyway. After 49...Rxb6 there are two ways to stop the pawn: 50. Nf6+ Kg6 51. Ne4 (51. Nd5 Bd4) Ba5 52. Be5 Kf5  50. Be5 Kg6 51. Nf6 Kf5 52. Bb2 Bd4 53. Bxd4 Nxd4 54. Nd5 Ke4 55. Nc3+ Kd3 Black should be ... |
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May-07-14 Spassky vs Lobron, 1980 
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| Babes: a7 indeed wasn't a threat lioric, but Bb7 was. The rook can't even leave the 7th because then a7, so Black is already dead lost by that point. It's hard to point out where Lobron went wrong. He did well to get to the endgame, but he's still the one playing for a draw because of ... |
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Feb-06-14 H Wang vs Dreev, 2013
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| Babes: The idea of Qb3 is mostly to keep the knight on c4 and threaten e5, Ne4, Nd6 etc. all with tempo. Black would have gotten squished were it not for his excellent reply 16...e5. On either the 17th or the 18th move White has to play Ne3. 17. Rfc1 is vaguely understandable (line up the ... |
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Aug-06-13 Staunton vs Horwitz, 1846
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| Babes: OJC - I agree that 30. Ra7 looks like a win. Perhaps Staunton looked at 30. Ra7 Rb8 31. Bxc6+ Qxc6 32. Rb6 Qc8 33. c6+ Kd8 and missed 34. Qb2? |
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Apr-03-13 Capablanca vs Spielmann, 1928
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| Babes: My impression was that, if anything, it was a little melodramatic for Spielmann to have held off on playing ...Ra1 in the R+2 vs. R+1 ending. For instance instead of 58...Kh7, 58...Ra1 59. Rxh2 Ra7+ 60. Kd7 Ra7+ 61. Kc6 Kxg5 is an easy draw with the king on the short side. |
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Feb-12-13 Capablanca vs Marshall, 1909
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| Babes: I can hardly fathom that the simple 26. fxe3 Qg3 27. Rb2 doesn't work against 25...Rxe3. |
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Jan-06-13 G Jones vs S Sulskis, 2013
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| Babes: At that point, Black's bishop pair and active king were plenty of compensation for the pawn. Jones was able to torture his opponent in the opposite colored bishop endgame, but in this case Sulskis was up the task of drawing it. |
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Sep-19-12 J Pelikan vs B Wexler, 1972
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| Babes: I can't even remember the last time I missed a Wednesday puzzle. Well, I don't know how much it was a "miss", since I strongly believe that my choice, 28. Ndf6, is also winning. Also, as everybody is pointing out, 28...Ne5 is a tough nut to crack against 28. Rg1. I suppose nobody will |
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Sep-14-12 D Gurevich vs I Ivanov, 1991
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| Babes: It was going to get depressing once White played 20. Rc4 and Rxd4, and of course 19...Nxd5 20. Bxd5 Rxd5 21. Rxc8+ isn't what Black wants, so Black is just losing a pawn with less than zero compensation. |
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Kibitzing
