The Chess Mind

A day or two ago I presented this position, which served as a starting point for some attractive analysis by Charles Sullivan.



It's an analysis position that could have arisen from the game Fischer-Stein, Sousse Interzonal 1967, and although White has the troops threateningly massed near Black's king, finding a successful invasion route isn't so simple at all. It's not a bad position to use for analysis practice, but finding the solution (especially a full solution) without the help of computers is likely to prove challenging even for GMs. So spend some time on the position if you like, and then have a look at Sullivan's analysis here (with some abbreviations and additions, but no corrections, by yours truly) - it's attractive and worth your time to do so.

Analysis maven Charles Sullivan has written (by email) about some beautiful analysis he has done on the heavyweight battle Fischer-Stein from the Sousse Interzonal in 1967. This was the position after White's 21st move:



In this scary-looking position, Stein played 21...Nb6, but Sullivan takes a look at 21...g6 here. The variation leading to the key position for this post continues 22.Bh6 Re8 23.e6 fxe6 24.Nfg5 Qb6(? - Sullivan) 25.Qg4 Bxe4 26.Bxe4 Ne5 27.Qg3 Bf6 28.Rad1 Qa7 (not best from a computer perspective, but the position is probably lost anyway and humans aren't computers):



What is White's only clearly winning move? It's not so hard for the computer to work out, but for humans it's another story. Give it your best shot (but please don't post your results in the comments); I'll post Sullivan's analysis tomorrow.

It's quite simple, really. First, you see and maybe study the idea a little from some examples. Next, you get an opponent to spontaneously play into a situation where you can use that very tactic in a game. This is just what happened to me a couple of days ago.



This is a position from the Keres-Geller game I presented in Wednesday night's ChessBase show. Geller, to move, played 18...f6 and was bludgeoned with 19.Qh5 g6 20.Nxg6 hxg6 21.Bxg6 Qg7 22.Rd3 Bd6 23.f4, when the introduction of the rook into the attack led to a quick decision. But what if Black plays 18...Bd6, with the idea that after 19.Qh5 g6 minor piece sacrifices won't achieve anything?

A couple of days I presented this position



and suggested that White was in bad shape. (Not that you needed anyone to tell you!) He's a pawn down, his d-pawn needs constant supervision, and the threat of ...h6-h5 looks likely to stretch his meager resources too thin. And yet, the position really can be saved, as you can see for yourself (if you haven't already figured it out) by clicking here.

This rapid event finished last year (ancient history!), but because (some of) the games have only just become available, I've waited to announce it until now. So: the Leon World Chess Open*, and everybody has won. Okay, not quite. There were 341 players and only 8 of them managed to tie for first. With 7.5/9, they were:

1. Evgeny Bareev (first on tiebreaks)
2. Artur Jussupow
3. Alexei Shirov
4. Daniel Fridman
5. Sergey Fedorchuk
6. Renier Vasquez Igarza
7. Orelvis Perez Mitjans
8. Dragan Paunovic
9. Julio Granda Zuniga

You can find some of the games in the latest edition of TWIC (#739), and while many, perhaps most of the games are incomplete (that will be obvious as you replay them) and one (Longa Yuaca-Korchnoi) clearly corrupted, some of the games are available. Two in particular caught my eye, and both were played by Bareev. Amazingly, both games ended similarly, with simple but spectacular shots his opponents never saw coming:





In both cases, it's White to move. In the first game, Bareev-Timman, Black has just played 29...cxd4?; in the second, Bareev-Granda Zuniga, Black's last move was 37...Qe4-c6. In both cases Black was already in some trouble before Bareev's rejoinder, but their moves only made matters worse. Can you find Bareev's crushers? The solutions are at the end of the post.

* Such a pretentious title! How is it a World Open, anyway? And why stop there - why not call it the "Intergalactic Open"? Besides, the real World Open takes place in Philadelphia each year.**

** For the humor-impaired and non-native English speakers, the previous sentence was tongue in cheek. I think both tournament names are pretentious.

Bareev-Timman: The coup de grace is 30.Ng6+!, forcing mate. Black resigned, not wishing to see either 30...Qxg6 31.Qxf8# or 30...hxg6 31.Qh3/h1 followed by 31.Qxh4#.

Bareev-Granda Zuniga: The crusher is 38.Rd8+!, and once again it forced immediate resignation. Black can stave off an immediate mate with 38...Kh7 (38...Nxd8? 39.Qxg7#) 39.Qd3+ Qe4 (39...g6? 40.Rh8#), but after 40.Qxe4+ Bxe4 41.Rd7 loses a pawn, leaving him a full exchange down without a shred of compensation.

In the following position, White is a pawn down and in bad shape. His d-pawn requires constant supervision, and Black is ready to get his kingside majority rolling with ...h5. What can White, to move, do?



The answer will be provided in a day or two.