A New ChessVideos Show: Reeling in the Big Fish
It's not the best game of my life, but my ChessVideos show this week covers one of most picturesque games of my life, against my highest-rated tournament victim. This win, as those who have known me for some time probably know, was against GM and erstwhile Candidate Leonid Yudasin from the New York Masters in 2002. We both misplayed the opening somewhat, but at one point in the early middlegame I committed a felix culpa, sacrificing a piece for two wonderful central pawns. To say that this sac worked out would be an understatement, but I missed and Yudasin rejected a finesse that would have put my idea out of business. As things turned out, my central pawn mass turned into a mighty pawn phalanx - just how mighty you'll need to see for yourself! Pop some popcorn, sit back, click here and enjoy.
Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on
Sunday March 23, 2008 at 6:17am
Now that was a long time ago.
For you to play a game like that in those circumstances is amazing. To play the level you did is impressive and the pawns at the end of the game were strong as death. Thanks for sharing that masterpiece.
To be able to nurse those pawns down the board showed great technique and you really turned them into monsters. I hope by reviewing the game some more I can pick up some of those ideas because you do a great job bringing that level of chess to a wide audience.
Sbb1cpa: Actually, it wasn't a very well-played game on my part, or, for that matter, on Yudasin's. Sometimes one is just lucky that an idea works out, and that's what happened in the game. Once he missed his chance for a big advantage immediately after the sacrifice, he was in trouble. The problem was that although the resulting position was about even, objectively speaking, it was a lot easier for Black to play. Almost all I had to do was push the pawns and avoid blundering (and I didn't even do that!), and the game more or less played itself.