An Intuitive and Spectacular Sacrifice by Bronstein

    Intuition is a form of knowledge that appears in consciousness without obvious deliberation. Hunches (feelings or guesses based on intuition rather than known facts) are generated by the unconscious mind after rapidly sifting through past experience and cumulative knowledge. “Gut feelings” tends to arise quickly, without awareness of all of the information. 

    David Bronstein (1924-2006) was not only a great player, but a great author. In 1951 he drew a world title match against Botviinik; he was probably warned by Soviet authorities that he had better not win. 

    In the following rather well known game Bronstein intuitively sacrificed a piece for two Pawns with the idea that his Pawn center would restrict his opponent’s pieces and that would compensate for his opponent's small material advantage. 

    His opponent, Ernst Rojahn (1909-1977), was born in Tonsberg, Norway and was Norwegian Champion in 1945 and 1958. He played in the Olympiads in 1939, 1952, 1966 and 1958. The game was played in the qualifying round of the 1956 Olympiad held in Moscow.

[Event "Moscow ol (Men) qual-A"] [Site "Moscow URS"] [Date "1956.09.05"] [Round "5"] [White "David Bronstein"] [Black "Ernst Rojahn"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C58"] [Annotator "Stockfish 17"] [PlyCount "75"] [EventDate "1956.??.??"] {C58: Two Knights Defense} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 {[%mdl 32]} 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Na5 6. d3 {Far more popular than this questionable move is 6.Bb5+, but Bronstein has a spectacular dea up his sleeve;} h6 7. Nf3 e4 8. dxe4 {The book line is 6.Qe2, but Bronstein has an fantastic idea; he sacrifices the B to gain a preponderance in the center, Engines give black a Pawn and a half advantage} (8. Nd4 {is an interesting idea that doesn't quite work to white's advantahe.} Bc5 9. Be3 exd3 10. Bb5+ c6 11. dxc6 O-O 12. Qxd3 {with complications that worled out in black's favor in Trapl,J (2400)-Mikhalchishin, A (2520) Karvina 1987}) 8... Nxc4 {Black has to accept the sacrifice otherwise white gets the upper hand.} (8... Bb4+ 9. Bd2 Bxd2+ 10. Nbxd2 Nxc4 11. Nxc4 { with both a solid material and positional afvantage.}) 9. Qd4 Nb6 (9... Nd6 { is also playable.} 10. Nbd2 Bg4 11. Ne5 Bh5 12. O-O g6 13. Nd3 Bg7 14. c4 O-O 15. Qe3 Re8 16. f3 Nf5 17. Qe1 Nd4 18. Qd1 Nxe4 19. Nxe4 Rxe4 20. g4 Nxf3+ 21. Qxf3 Rxg4+ 22. Kh1 Rg1+ 23. Kxg1 Bxf3 24. Rxf3 Qe7 {0-1 Triana,J (2330)-Castro Rojas,O (2380) Cienfuegos 1976}) 10. c4 {Bronstein has sacrificed a piece for two Ps and a dominating center.} (10. O-O {favors black.} Be7 {Too slow. Either 10. ..g5 or 10...c5 are better.} 11. c4 O-O 12. Nc3 c6 13. e5 cxd5 14. c5 {with huge complications. Serikbayev,Y (2325)-Filippov,A (2558) Karaganda 2009}) 10... c5 {The engines prefer 10...Nbd7 and 11...Bf5} (10... Bb4+ 11. Nbd2 Qe7 12. O-O Bc5 13. Qd3 Nbd7 14. h3 O-O {Black is better. Manea,A (2301) -Sofronie, I (2399) Baile Tusnad 2001}) (10... c6 {has been recommended with the ideas of returning the piece and gaining the two Bs.} 11. O-O (11. c5 { this was the suggested move, bot is is completely wrong.} Nbd7 12. d6 b6 13. b4 bxc5 14. bxc5 Qa5+ 15. Nc3 Qxc5 {with a huge advantage.}) 11... cxd5 12. cxd5 g5 13. Be3 Bg7 14. Qb4 Nfd7 {Black is slightly better.}) 11. Qd3 Bg4 12. Nbd2 Be7 {At this point black's advantage has disappeared and white can claim sufficient compensation for his sacrifice.} 13. O-O O-O 14. Ne5 Bh5 15. b3 (15. f4 {liks aggressive, but with careful play black shoulf emerge with the advantage.} Nfd7 16. Nef3 Bg6 17. Qe3 Re8 18. e5 {but here, too, black should be OK if he is careful.}) 15... Nbd7 16. Bb2 Nxe5 17. Bxe5 Nd7 $1 18. Bc3 Bf6 { Eliminating a potentially threatening piece.} 19. Rae1 Bxc3 20. Qxc3 {Black now needs to prevent further advance in the center and so needs to play 20... f3. Instead he allows Bronstein to advance his P with a gain of time.} Qf6 { After tjis Bronstein's play has been completely justified as he now has the advantage.} (20... f6 21. f4 b5 {Counterattack!} 22. e5 (22. cxb5 a6 { Continuing the counterattaxk.} 23. a4 axb5 24. axb5 Bf7 {Stopping e5. His next move will be .. .Nc5 with plenty of play.}) 22... fxe5 23. fxe5 Rxf1+ 24. Rxf1 bxc4 25. bxc4 Qg5 26. e6 Nf6 {with enormous complications! In Shootouts white scored +1 -1 =3}) 21. e5 {[%mdl 1024]} Qf5 22. f4 Bg6 23. Ne4 {His last piece is brought in to action.} Rab8 24. Qf3 Bh7 {Black is pretty much reduced to just shifting piece.} 25. g4 {Watch white's Ps roll!} Qg6 26. f5 Qb6 27. Qg3 f6 28. e6 Ne5 29. h4 Kh8 30. g5 Rbc8 31. Kh1 Qd8 32. g6 Bxg6 (32... Bg8 {is no better.} 33. d6 b5 34. e7) 33. fxg6 {All hope of saving the game for black is gone.} b5 34. d6 Qb6 35. d7 Nxd7 36. exd7 Rcd8 37. Nxf6 {The finishing touch.} Qc6+ (37... Rxf6 38. Re8+ Rxe8 39. dxe8=Q+ Rf8 40. Qxf8#) 38. Qg2 {Black resigned, A spectacular game by Bronstein.} 1-0