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White to Play

Pete Tamburro on

Published in Chess Puzzles

We have a bit of a chess lesson today and a whole game. What Shirov does against his opponent is very instructive. First, we see the way Black is now sneaking into the Philidor--through the Pirc Defense. Secondly, we see Shirov initiate an attack by gambiting a pawn. Then we reach the diagram for the final lesson. [Shirov-Klinova, Gibralter, 2006:1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Nf3 Nbd7 [And here we are in the Philidor Defense!]5.g4 [A very interesting and dangerous gambit.]5...Nxg4 6.Rg1 Ngf6 7.Bc4 [White has great freedom and open lines for the pawn.]7...h6 [Protecting against an eventual Bg5 move by White; however, there is a possible tiny flaw in the idea.]8.Be3 c6 [Preparing a counter attack with b5 or even eventually with d5 and also providing a diagonal for the black queen. All going according to plan.] 9.dxe5 dxe5 10.Qd3 [A clever trap is laid] Qc7?? [Here is that flaw we mentioned.] SEE DIAGRAM


11.Bxf7+!! Much better was 10...Qa5 because of the difference between the queen being on a5 and c7. 11.Bxf7+ Kxf7 12.Qc4+ Ke8 13.Qe6+ Kd8 14.0–0–0 Kc7 and the king now has an escape square.] Kxf7 12.Qc4+ Ke7 [12...Ke8 13.Qe6+ Kd8 14.0–0–0 b5 15.Nxe5] 13.Nh4 Nb6 14.Ng6+ Ke8 15.Bxb6 axb6 16.Nxh8 [And now the game is effectively over. White is the exchange up and the black king is stuck in the middle. Black gives up the ghost a few moves later.] 16...g5 17.Ng6 Bc5 18.0–0–0 Black Resigns

 


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