One of the most interesting, and controversial, games from the tournament was Maroczy vs. Tartakower. The judges awarded the game the third brilliancy prize although the majority of
them declared such sacrifices are incalculable and therefore "they deserve no encouragement."
Tartakower's Rook sacrifice at move 22 also created some controversy among observers on Chessgames.com 10-12 years ago. Among the comments were such as it wasn't spectacular, it was a poor game, it was Tartakower's greatest brilliancy, it was a fascinating game, it should be better known and, "Engine analysis leaves too many questions unanswered to really help us to understand what is going on."
At the time of those comments 10-12 years ago, engines were not at the level they are today. As an experiment I used Fritz 5.32 (which was released in late 1998) to analyze the position after 17.Nd2 and it considered the position almost dead even.
In fact, it's evaluation of the top ten moves ranged from 0.06 to 0.12.
After Tartakower's Rook sac (17...Rxh2) it indicated that white's (NOT black's) advantage was just over 3/4 a Pawn. Stockfish 15's evaluation reverses that and favors black by about 3/4 of a P, but it indicates that Tartakower had stronger non-sacrificial continuations.
Unless one is a chess purist who loves perfection, I think we can all agree that Tartakower's sacrificial way was the most pleasing.
Years ago I possessed Tartakower's My Best Games (in two volumes), but they disappeared somewhere. Today the books have been republished in a single volume. All 440 pages are jam-packed with fascinating games. GM Andy Soltis was correct when he wrote, "This book was meant to do what all great annotations do: instruct, explain, and entertain. And it succeeds spectacularly."
In the featured game Maroczy's opening play was somewhat passive and as a result Tartakower managed to obtain a much more active position. What makes his sacrifice on move 17 unusual is that it is more of a positional nature than tactical. Also, I forgot to mention, Tartakower made a second Rook sacrifice on move 28!
Geza Maroczy–Savielly Tartakower0–1A85Teplitz-SchönauTeplice-Sanov CSR05.10.1922Stockfish 15
Dutch Defense 1.d4 e6 2.c4 f5 At the time this game was played the Dutch
was not popular and was considered offbeat. 3.c3 The modern way of meeting
the Dutch is to fianchetto the King's B which puts pressure on e4 and d5 and,
also, helps in the defense of the K against any coming K-side attack. f6 4.a3 A rare side line the idea of which is to prevent ...Bb4 followed by ...
Bxc3. The point being that it in this line black eliminates the N and is
thereby aided in controlling e4. More often seen nowadays is 4.Nf3, but there
are other ways for white to equalize. 4.g3 b4 5.d2 0-0 6.g2 d6 7.f3 bd7 8.0-0 with equality. Flohr, S-Botvinnik,M Leningrad 1933 4.e3 b4 5.d3 xc3+ 6.bxc3 c5 7.e2 b6 8.0-0 with equality. Rodriguez Vargas,O (2445)
-Gil Gonzalez,J (2360) Terrassa 1989 4.f3 b4 5.b3 e7 6.d2 xc3 7.xc3 d6 8.g3 bd7 9.g2 e4 10.0-0 Wang Yue (2704)-Agdestein,S (2583)
Amsterdam 2008 4...e7 5.e3 0-0 6.d3 Classical development. White is
hoping to play e4, but black can prevent this. d5 An additional grip on e4. 7.f3 More flexibility is offered by 7.Nge2 c6 Black wants to play ...Ne4,
but before he can to that he must strengthen his center. 7...e4 8.cxd5 exd5 9.b3 and black must play ...Nxc3 or else... c6 10.xe4 fxe4 11.xe4 winning a P and leaving black tied up because of the threat to his b-Pawn. 8.0-0 e4 9.c2 All of white's pieces are aimed at e4, but there is no
satisfactory way to dislodge the N. 9.e5 With the idea of forcing the N
from e4 with f3 would favor black. d7 10.f3 10.f4 is correct. Then the
position is equal. 10...xe5 11.dxe5 xc3 12.bxc3 dxc4 13.xc4 Black is
better. 9...d6 Note how black's pieces make a slow march to the K-side.
White's problem is that his position is passive and there is not much he can
do to launch any kind of attack himself. Instead he is reduced to guarding
against a coming attack by black. 10.b3 d7 11.b2 Hoping to exchange off
the dark squared B by 11.a4 and Ba3 is met by 11...Qe2. This position is dead
equal, but as befitting his optimistic attitude he wrote - Full of confidence
in the scientific basis of his play, white treats the game from a purely
positional point of view, whereas black regards the given position as a vast
problem: Mate in 25 moves f6 The R prepares to join in the looming attack. 12.fe1 Maroczy plans to fianchetto his B, but his plan turns out to be too
slow and after the text black gets the upper hand. 12.e2 bringing the N
to the defense of the K was better. h6 13.e5 xe5 14.dxe5 h4 15.h3 g5 16.f4 xh3+ 17.gxh3 xh3 18.f2 h4+ 19.g3 This shows the importance of
playing the N to e2 c5 20.h1 xf4+ 21.g2 xe3 22.af1 g5 23.xh6 xh6 24.cxd5 cxd5 In this complicated and unbalanced position five Shootout games
were drawn. 12...h6 13.g3 13.b4 With black's R on h6
the B sac on h2 works even with the N on f3. xh2+ 14.xh2 h4 wins 13...f6 14.f1 Possibly a better way to defend against black's attack was to
play 14.h4, but psychologically advancing another P in front of the K is hard
to do. 14.h4 Temporarily preventing ...g5 g6 15.e2 h5 16.e5 g5
And now this is now as effective as white has sufficient defensive resources. 17.g2 gxh4 18.f4 g5 19.h1 hxg3 How does white meet this? 20.xe4 h2+ 21.xh2 gxh2+ 22.xh2 h6+ 23.h3 dxe4 24.g1+ with equal chances. 14...g5 15.ad1 This routine move is quite pointless as it does nothing to meet
black's approaching K-side attack. 15.g2 is logical continuation allows
black supremacy as follows... g4 16.d2 g6 16...xf2 leaves white better
after 17.xf2 xh2 and there is no way for black to continue the attack. 18.e2 with equal chances. 17.f4 gxf3 18.xf3 df6 Black has only a
nominal advantage. 15...g4 16.xe4 16.d2 runs into xf2 17.xf2 xh2+ 18.g1 xg3 black has a decisive advantage. 16...fxe4 17.d2 Better
would have been 17.Ne5 because it would have made the sacrifice on h2
impossible because black no longer has the check ...Qxf2+ available. Black
would however have had a considerable advantage. 17.h4 leads to a lost
position after xh4 18.gxh4 xh4 19.f3 exf3 20.e4 g3 21.hxg3 xg3+ 22.g2 f6 23.f2 h2+ 24.f1 fxg2+ 25.xg2+ xg2+ 26.xg2 xe4 17...xh2
After 10 minutes Stockfish evaluated the position at almost one Pawn in
black's favor, but the R sacrifice was not its first choice. It preferred 17...
Qf7 which was evaluated at 2.5 Pawns in black's favor. One thing is clear.
White's K is only defended by the B on f1, whereas all the other pieces are
only spectators. On the other hand, black's Q-side pieces are not
participating in the attack. That's why, explained Tartakower, he decided to
try and pillage white's K-side with this R sacrifice. 17...f7 This was
Stockfish 15's preferred move. 18.g2 f6 19.a4 g6 20.a5 d7 21.a1 a6 22.a3 xa3 23.xa3 f8 24.b1 h6 25.d2 h5 and here, with a 2.5 P
advantage according to Stockfish, the Fritz comment is black is clearly better.
18.xh2 Not forced, but accdording to the engines by far best. Still,
white's defense is going to prove to be extreme;y difficult. 18.xe4
Given white's fate in this game one wonders if this may have been the better
choice because it presents black with an opportunity to go wrong. h6 18...dxe4 19.xh2 g6 20.g2 f6 21.h1 d7 22.g1 Black's attack has run out
of gas and now it's white who is on the road to a win. 19.g2 dxe4
Playable, but less clear is 19...Rxg2+ 20.xe4 f6 21.d3 e7 22.e4 e5 23.dxe5 d7 24.e6 f8 25.d4 xe6 Black is much better. 18...xf2+ 19.h1 f6 Tartakower explains - The first point of the sacrifice. Since white's
whole second rank remains paralyzed, black has just sufficient time to bring
his reserve troops into action. 19...xg3 is much less dangerous to white. 20.e2 Now that his N isn't pinned white has time to guard his second rank. f6 21.c5 c7 22.c4 dxc4 23.bxc4 h4+ 24.g1 g3 25.d5 This counter in
the center is very effective! exd5 26.cxd5 cxd5 27.c3 f7 28.xd5 e6 28...xd5 29.g7+ e8 30.d2 d7 30...e7 31.h8+ f7 32.c4+ g6 33.g7+ f5 34.f7+ g4 35.e2+ h3 36.f1+ g2 37.xg2# 31.h8+ e7 32.g7+ draws! 29.d1 g8 30.xf6+ xf6 31.xf6 xf6 32.b2 with equal chances.
20.e2 Now at least the N is unpinned. xg3 21.b1 This allows the Q
to join the defense, but here instead of defending white should have
counterattacked. 21.c5 with the same idea as in the previously given line
of offering to sacrifice the N on c4 if the black retreat the B. c7 22.c4 h4+ 23.h2 xh2+ 24.xh2 xh2 25.xh2 dxc4 26.bxc4 and white can still
put up a manly defense. 21...h5 22.d2 d7 So as to activate the other R.
White is so cramped that there is not a lot he can do. 23.f2 Only slightly
better would have been 23.Qe1 h4+ 24.g1 g3 Other good moves were 24...g3
or 24...Ng3 25.c3 Giving up the exchange is questionable. 25.h2
was far better. g5 25...xh2+ 26.xh2 xh2+ 27.xh2 and the chances
would be equal. 26.g2 Black is clearly better, but there is no forced win
and so black must resign himself to a rather tedious exploitation of his
advantage. In Shootouts white scored +0 -2 =3 25...xf2+ 26.xf2 It's
possible Maroczy was hoping that the elimination of the dark squared B would
lessen the effect of black's attack, but the Q, N and P still prove too much
for white's defenses to handle. However, in this position black must find the
one move that keeps his advantage. g3 Which he does. 26...g3 27.h2 xh2+ 28.xh2 f5 29.d2 with equal chances. 27.g2 f8 28.e1 xf1+
The engine recommends other solutions, but Tartakower's second R sacrifice is
both pretty and incisive. The idea behind the sacrifice is to gain time to
bring his B into play. 29.xf1 e5 Adding the B into play. 30.g1 30.xg3 xg3+ 31.e1 g4 32.d2 h1+ 33.f1 exd4 34.xd4 g3+ 35.e1 f5+ 36.d2 xd4 and black has a won ending. 30...g4 31.xg3 xg3 32.e1 f5 33.f2 g5 aiming for ...Bf3+. 34.dxe5 f3+ 35.f1 g3+ White resigned. 35...g3+ 36.xg3 xg3 37.e2 h3+ 38.e1 h1+ 39.d2 xb1 40.c3 xe2 41.cxd5 c5 42.b4 c1+ 43.b3 c4+ 44.a4 b5+ 45.a5 xa3# 0–1
No comments:
Post a Comment