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Chessville
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Chess Informant has just released the third edition of the Anthology of Chess Combinations. I'm looking forward to seeing this book, but having read the pre-publication blurb, I'm already having slight feelings of disappointment. It seems they have actually computer-checked all of the examples! This means it is highly unlikely I will be able to use it for my favourite pastime of busting published analysis. Oh well -- there are still plenty of other books out there.
What's going on here? A quick glance is enough to see that all of White's pieces are aimed straight at Black's insecure king. The two candidates that spring to mind are 1.Qd8 and 1.Nxc6. Let's try the queen move first. The threat is 2.Ba6+! followed by mate: 2...Kxa6 3.Qb6+ or 2...Ka7 3.Qb6+ Ka8 4.Qb7#. How does Black defend against this? If 1...Nc7 White can force resignation with the simple 2.Qxg8, although there is a slightly more complicated win with 2.Qxd7!? Qe8 [if 2...Rxd4 3.Rxc6 Qc8 then 4.Rb6+ wins the queen] 3.Ba6+! Ka8 4.Rh8! followed by mate. We don't even have to look at 1.Nxc6, since it voluntarily eliminates a key attacker for benefits that are not at all clear, at least to me. Did our friend Mr. Webb play 1.Qd8? Of course not -- otherwise we wouldn't be looking at this position. He preferred 1.Nxc6 Bxc6 2.Qe7+ Nc7 3.Ba6+ Kxa6 [3...Kb8 4.Rh7 Qxh7 5.Qxh7 Nxa6 6.Qh2! and wins -- DS] 4.Qxc7 Qe8 5.Rxc6+ Kb5 6.a4+ and Black resigned in view of the possible continuation 6...bxa3 7.Qb7+ Kc4 8.Qb3+ Kd4 9.Qc3+ Ke4 10.Qe3+, although there are small improvements for White here as well. Subtract ten points for unnecessary complexity if you wanted to play this way. Our next example, also from ECM, is rather striking:
The drawback of the immediate 1...Qxf3+ was that it gave White the option of retreating the king to g2 and g1 to escape the Black bishops. This leads to the idea of maintaining the attack on the bishop and clearing the knight out of the way before sacrificing the queen. With that in mind, have a look at 1...Nd2!! This is more like it. If White takes the Trojan Horse [2.Qxd2 or 2.Bxd2] his fortress is destroyed after 2...Qxf3+ because 3.Kg1 d4 is a total disaster and 3.Kxf3 d4 is an immediate mate. The only defence is 2.Nd4 but then the secondary idea of 1...Nd2 emerges. Black plays 2...Nxf3 3.Nxf3 d4! and wins a piece. As I've said before, I enjoy problems whose solution involves a quiet move, that is, a move that strengthens the position in a fundamental way but which is not a check or capture. I found this example particularly satisfying, and I flipped to the solution just to confirm that our hero the Armenian was on form back in 1973. Well, another surprise: Vaganian missed 1...Nd2 completely, preferring the line I gave in the first paragraph! He did go on to win, but I haven't been able to locate the score of the game. I can understand missing a move like 1...Nd2 in the heat of battle, but what does it say about grandmaster chess when it is missed during later analysis? Petrosian said it best: the books are full of mistakes, and one cannot take anything on trust. Our final position today is another example of a post-mortem lapse:
After 6.Kf3? Black has the much stronger move 6...f5!, which is completely unremarked by Rogers. In fact, the boot is now squarely on the other foot since White must lose his remaining pawn and is saved from defeat only through maintaining the opposition: 7.Ke3 Kg2 8.Ke2! [definitely not 8.Kd4? Kg3 9.Ke5 Kg4 and Black wins] 8...Kg3 9.Kf1! Kxf4 10.Kf2! with a well-known drawing position. Instead of 6.Kf3?, White can thread his way to a win with 6.f5! Ke2 7.Kf4! Kd3 [or 7...f6 8.Ke4 Kf2 9.Kd5 and wins] 8.Ke5! Ke3 9.f6! By shouldering off Black's king at crucial moments, White has finally got his pawn out of range and can round up Black's pawn with an easy win to follow. Black can in fact achieve a draw from the diagrammed position, but a different idea is required, that of promoting the advanced f-pawn rather than the h-pawn. After 1...Kg3! 2.Rh7 f5+! 3.Kxf5 Kxf3 4.Rxh2 Kg3! the hit on the rook gains Black just enough time to stop White from winning his remaining pawn. The result is a trivial draw, as the reader can verify. Well, what is so unusual about this example, one may be thinking. Rogers saw the key idea but faltered slightly in the execution. My point is that he failed to correct his error later on at home, analysing in the quiet of his study with no clock ticking. The Editorial Board of Chess Informant also let this one slip away. That is surprising enough, but there's more. The entire flawed analysis by Rogers was republished verbatim by GM Andrew Soltis in his book The Inner Game with no mention of Black's drawing resource. So this position fooled not one but two grandmasters, and not one but two editors. Shirov must still be kicking himself!
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