10 February 2013

"A brilliant and sound queen sacrifice"

Working my way through the Anthology of Chess Combinations, some of the so-called "educational" problems are proving challenging. In Problem number 117 this morning, I found the key first move and then faltered. The motif is discovery (ECC classification). The key move sacrifices a queen to set up a double-check--the most potent of discovered attacks. The Anthology features the analysis of Rashid Nezhmetdinov on his stunning combination. Nezhmetdinov did not have the ability to check his analysis with computers.


Polugaevsky,Lev -- Nezhmetdinov,Rashid [A53]
Sochi 1958

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 d6 3.Nc3 e5 4.e4 exd4 5.Qxd4 Nc6 6.Qd2 g6 7.b3 Bg7 8.Bb2 0–0 9.Bd3 Ng4 10.Nge2 Qh4 11.Ng3 Nge5 12.0–0 f5 13.f3 Bh6 14.Qd1 f4 15.Nge2 g5 16.Nd5 g4 17.g3 fxg3 18.hxg3 Qh3 19.f4 Be6 20.Bc2 Rf7 21.Kf2 Qh2+ 22.Ke3 Bxd5 23.cxd5 Nb4 24.Rh1

Black to move

24...Rxf4 25.Rxh2 Rf3+ 26.Kd4

26...Bg7

The editors of the Anthology insist that this move is best. Engines disagree, as pointed out by Kingscrusher in his YouTube video on the game.* My title for this post comes from that video.

27.a4 c5+ 28.dxc6 bxc6 29.Bd3 Nexd3+ 30.Kc4 d5+ 31.exd5 cxd5+ 32.Kb5 Rb8+ 33.Ka5 Nc6+ 0–1

Update: 

I left Stockfish running for an hour after posting. It now considers 26...Bg7 the best move. The search depth is currently 28 plies.

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