Our problem position comes from the game that provided last week's lesson. Then, we looked at Louis Paulsen's opening errors and the waltz of Wilhelm Steinitz's king. This week, we look at the combination that concludes the game. Steinitz chose the second best continuation from the diagram. We examine both, and any others that young players suggest as looking promising for White.
Steinitz,William -- Paulsen,Louis [C25]
Baden-Baden 30.07.1870
1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 exf4 4.d4 Qh4+ 5.Ke2 d6 6.Nf3 Bg4 7.Bxf4 0–0–0 8.Ke3 Qh5 9.Be2 Qa5? 10.a3 Bxf3 11.Kxf3± Qh5+ 12.Ke3 Qh4 13.b4? g5? 14.Bg3 Qh6 15.b5 Nce7 16.Rf1 Nf6 17.Kf2 Ng6 18.Kg1+- Qg7 19.Qd2 h6 20.a4 Rg8 21.b6! axb6 22.Rxf6! Qxf6 23.Bg4+ Kb8 24.Nd5 Qg7 25.a5 f5 26.axb6 cxb6 27.Nxb6 Ne7 28.exf5 Qf7
White to move
29.f6
Even better was 29.Ra8+ Kc7 30.Qa5 Nc6 31.Nd5+ Kd7 32.Qc7+ Ke8 33.Bh5+-
29...Nc6 30.c4 Na7 31.Qa2 Nb5 32.Nd5 Qxd5 33.cxd5 Nxd4 34.Qa7+ Kc7 35.Rc1+ Nc6 36.Rxc6# 1–0
Really the only bad move Steinitz played was 13.b4? which allows black to correctly strike the center with 13...f5!. One can understand missing the deep tactical implications, especially since the point of b4 was to get the pawn storm rolling on the black king.
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