Friday, December 20, 2024

A Queen Sacrifice Based on Intuition

    
The great attacking genius Mikhail Tal once told another player, "You calculate variations excellently, but you really must work on your intuition.” 
    What’s intuition? It’s the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning. Viswanathan Anand explained it when he said, "Intuition is the first move I think of." 
    For chess players intuition comes from the knowledge of chess and experience. In simple or familiar positions we often play automatically, but when things get complicated we have to calculate variations. 
    It happens that some times our calculations don’t go very deep and we make a decision based on other factors. The strong English GM John Nunn said of a game he played that aside from checking a few minor things he had calculated almost nothing the entire game. 
    When the following game was played the Queen sacrifice instigated at move 11was known, but whenever it was first played in pre-engine days its soundness had to be based on intuition. When this game was played in 1999 engines had reached the level where even GMs had a hard time beating them. Still, at that time the soundness of white’s Queen sacrifice was open to question. 
    The little known GM (title award in 1978) Adrian Mikhalchishin (born in 1954) was born in Lviv, a city in western Ukraine, around 43 miles from the border with Poland. 
    His opponent was GM (title awarded in 1999) Dusko Pavasovic (born in 1976). He was born in Split, Croatia, but he plays for Slovenia and was the Slovenian champion in 1999, 2006 and 2007. He is also an FIDE Trainer. The game was played in the 1999 Nova Gorica (Slovenia) Open. It was won by GM Zdenko Kozul a half point ahead of seven others, including Pavasovic. In spite of winning this fantastic game Mikhalchishin only scored 4 points and finished in 50th place.

  A game that I liked (Fritz 17)

Adrian Mikhalchishin2518Dusko Pavasovic25391–0D45Nova GoricaNova Gorica1999Stockfish 17
D45: Semi-Slav: e3 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.c3 c6 4.e3 f6 5.f3 bd7 6.c2 d6 7.e4 xe4 8.xe4 dxe4 9.xe4 e5 10.dxe5 0-0 This is a well known position and white has now tried developing both Bs to different squares, but his next move surrendering the Q is the most popular. 11.exd6 Even though white does not quite get full material compensation for the Q there are other factors to be considered so the position is considered to be one that offers equal chances to both side. e8 12.xe8+ xe8+ 13.e3 For the Q white has a R+B+P which is very neary enough compensation materially, but he has problems with his development and K safety. Engines evalaute the position as equal, but practically speaking GMs differ. Some think the position is good for black while other maintain that the P on d6 is a valuable weapon and white should have a good game. b5 Thus move is a novelty, but mot an especially good one. even though white's K might come under attack. 13...e5 is black's black's best move and it was Stockfish's top choice after about 20 minutes of analysis. 14.0-0-0 xf3 15.gxf3 d7 16.d3 e5 17.hg1 g6 is equal as was played in Mikhalchishin,A (2490)-Flear,G (2320) Mexico 1980 14.0-0-0 This is quite risky as it plays into black's hands by exposing his K to attack. A safe course was 14.Be2 and then castling K-side. f6 15.d4 The idea behind this move is to eliminate the black pieces that are blockading the d-Pawn. Nevertheless, it might have been a better idea to support the d-Pawn with 15.c5. And now black might have better played 15...c5 himself to prevent white from protecting the d-Pawn. e6 16.xf6 According to plan, but 16.c5 was still a good option. gxf6 Oddly, the doubled Ps are not a serious weakness here because white his more important things to tend to. 17.c5 Finally. The protected passed P is a bone in black's throat. Still, Black has a Q vs, R+N+P, so the chances remain about equal/ b4 Black finally makes a bad move! 17...xa2 18.d3 a5 19.he1 d7 20.d4 Technically the position is even, but practically speaking you have to like white's centralized pieces and extra space. Still, it's interesting that Shootouts lead to some interesting play, but white only managed to score +0 -1 =4! 18.b1 Now that his K os safe and the P is protected white can claim a bit pf an advantage. d8 18...f5+ was better because after 19.a1 e4 20.a6 Threatening Bb7 d7 21.he1 f5 22.c1 Black has sufficient defensive resources. f8 19.d4 Of course he wants to eliminated the B...see the next note. d5 20.c1 This somewhat odd looking move is actually quite brilliant..it prepared the exchange of Bs. Black's B is hindering the advance of the d-Pawm. Refer to the note back on move 15! a5 21.b3 d8 Black has no really satisfactory move. 21...xb3 22.axb3 f8 23.d3 h5 24.he1 e8 25.e4 a6 26.c4 and white is winning; black cannot defend everything. 22.c4 e4+ Naturally black wants to keep his B. 23.a1 d7 24.f3 White is clearly winning. f5 25.d4 e8 25...g6 keeps the B, but it's way out of place on h6. After 26.ce1 d8 27.e7 The P on d6, the attack on f7 and the control of the e-file assure white of the win. 26.he1 26.xf5 xf5 27.hd1 would also be a win for white. 26...e5 27.xe5 fxe5 28.xf5 xf5 29.d1 d7 Holding up the d-Pawn. or so ot seems. 30.b5 This problem like move made black resign. 30.b5 f8 30...cxb5 31.c6 xc6 32.d7 and the P queens. 31.xc6 d8 32.b5 clearing the way for the c-Pawn. a5 33.c6 xb5 34.d7 1–0

No comments:

Post a Comment