Feb-11-13 L Christiansen vs Karpov, 1993 
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| alachabre: Just a casual response to the Mozart72 kerfuffle. I managed to screw up the White position playing against Houdini. I did alright for about seven moves, but Black threw a nifty bishop capture on g2 that evened the position. The Mozart72 analysis is deeply flawed (yeah I know, ... |
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Dec-02-11 J Zawadzka vs L Schut, 2010
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| alachabre: This is a fun position. I took a quick look at the moves Bh6 and Bxh7 before deciding that the skewer move Bg6 should be my first serious candidate. 30. Bg6 hxg6
31. hxg6+ Kg8
32. gxf7#
30. ... Rxf1
31. Qxf1 hxg6
32. gxh6+ Kg8
33. Qf7#
31. ... Rc8
32. Be4 preparing ... |
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Nov-09-11 D Mastrovasilis vs Short, 2011
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| alachabre: Well, it took about a minute and a half of plowing through the various combinational possibilities, getting familiar with the position, before I saw that 25. Bf8 threatens a costly check on g7 and must be immediately dealt with. 25. ... Rxf8 loses the queen.
25. ... Nxh6 looks ... |
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Oct-29-11 Robson vs B Finegold, 2011
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| alachabre: I studied this position for a bit, working out an invasion of the Black position, and found a back rank mate possibility based on file and diagnonal control of the square h8. Critically, I failed to notice at first that Black threatens mate in one on a2. Once that urgency is ... |
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Oct-28-11 McShane vs V Mirumian, 1999
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| alachabre: Ok, the first thing to notice is that the f2 rook is pinned. The second key is that the e1 square is undefended when the e5 bishop clears the file. So that points to a dynamic bishop move. The drawback is the threatened capture of the queen, which would unpin the f2 rook. Thus, ... |
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Sep-21-11 V Mikenas vs Bronstein, 1965
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| alachabre: I blew this one at first, thinking Qe1+ was a forced mate, even knowing that that would be too easy even for a Monday puzzle, and never in a game with a name like Bronstein on the board. So yes, Qf1 defends and it's back to the drawing board. The themes I started looking for then ... |
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Sep-16-11 P Richardson vs E Delmar, 1871
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| alachabre: <sevenseaman:12...Kf8 is illegal. I do not know what is the penalty for this kind of error OTB?> D'oh! I was casting around for an alternative reply on the first move, and it appears there is none. The penalty is simply to retract the move and play a legal move. |
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Sep-05-11 T Peine vs V Budde, 1970
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| alachabre: Well, the classic smothered mate, from every basic tactics book. As dzechiel notes, there is one minor tweak that should make one think twice, but the game is on. I did a quick check to make sure the queen was backed up so the rook would be forced to make the capture. I would hope |
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Sep-04-11 Shirov vs D King, 1990
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| alachabre: The first candidate move that comes to mind is 32. e5, as it is the only move that leads to freeing the White queen for attack into Black's kingside. I toyed around a bit with knight and rook sacs on f6 and f5, but they seem to lead nowhere, e.g. 32. Rxf6 Kxf6
33. Rf8+ Qxf8
... |
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Sep-01-11 Grischuk vs V Genba, 2011
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| alachabre: And I overlooked that the White d8 rook blocks the defense of g8 by the Black a8 rook. Eh. |
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Kibitzing
