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Black to Play

Pete Tamburro on

Published in Chess Puzzles

I’ve generally tried to make Friday puzzles a little harder. This one is more than a little hard, but very instructional. The winner was Dr. Max Euwe, the only man to beat Alekhine in a world championship match. His winning strategy vs. Guimard in 1946 is one worth remembering, especially if you’re a Nimzoindian systems player.


Aside from the outstanding initial sacrifice, the story of this game is really the knight, who seems to be peacefully stabled on c5, but watch what happens! 1...Rxh4+ 2.Nxh4 Rh8 3.Kg2 Qxh4 4.g5 Nb3 5.Rg1 Nd2!! (threatening mate in one with Qh2) 6.Kf2 Nxe4+ and Guimard resigned as he will lose a whole rook. For real students of the game, you might ask why White didn’t play 3.Rh3 Rxh4 4.Rxh4 Qxh4+ 5.Kg1? The answer is the resultant dominance of the knight after 5… Qg3+ 6.Kh1 Qxa3 7.Rf1 Qh3+ 8.Kg1 f6 9.Qf3 Qxf3 10.Rxf3 Nxe4 11.g5 f5 12.Ra3 Nc5 13.Kf2 Kf7 14.Ke3 Ke7 15.Ra2 Kd8 16.Rh2 Kc8 17.Rh8+ Kb7 (The king just hides and lets the knight and pawns manhandle the king and rook) 18.Rh1 a3 19.Ra1 Ne4 20.Rxa3 Nxg5 21.Ke2 f4 White is totally lost.

 


Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.

 

 

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