Click here
to look for "chess" with the Google search engine.
|
(Navigation bar ******* © A.J. Goldsby, 2015. **************** Click HERE ****************
**************** Buy a book
**************** Click HERE
... |
A wonderful miniature (14 moves!) ... by Akiba Rubinstein.
[A.J.G. ] The position after 14.Nxd4, is
the POTD for Tuesday; February 18th, 2014. The ratings are gathered from
the information found on the "Chess Metrics" website. 1.e4 e5; 2.Nf3 Nc6; 3.Bc4 Bc5; 4.Nc3 d6; 5.d3 Nf6; 6.0-0, Thus far, all the moves have been
perfect, and conform to the four basic principles that govern the opening phase of the game.
r1bqk2r/ppp2ppp/2np1n2/2b1p3/2B1P3/2NP1N2/PPP2PPP/R1BQ1RK1 b kq - 0 6
For good coverage of the lines,
see MCO-15, beginning on page #18 ... and all columns and notes.
[ The move of: RR 6.h3!?, would have prevented all of the problems associated with the pin of the Knight on f3. ]
6...Bg4; ("Pin ... and win!") Rubinstein immediately begins to pressure White's K-side, the only drawback, is that after h2-h3, Black may be obligated to swap off his LSB.
[ RR 6...Na5!? - Fritz 13. ]
7.Be3, (Square control.) White begins to dispute the key central squares. (d4)
[
Perhaps a more accurate line would have been:
GM Pavel V.
(2515) - GM Ruslan
; (2300?)
7...Bb6; (Solidity.) Rubinstein liked "clean" Pawn structures, and perhaps did not want a set of doubled QBP's. [ RR 7...0-0; - Fritz 13. ]
8.Kh1!?, (Safety?) Perhaps Salwe felt that his King would be a little more secure in the corner ... ... ...
[ Probably a little better was: RR 8.h3 Be6; "~" - Fritz 13. ]
8...Qd7; (Jacking up?)
Rubinstein brings his Queen into the foray, perhaps the main intent of this move is to discourage White from pushing his KRP forward.
[ RR 8...Nd4!?; - Fritz 13. ]
9.a3!?, (Saving the LSB?) This moves does a lot of different things. For one, White might be suggesting, that if Black were to try to castle on his right, then White would respond with b2-b4 and a Pawn Storm.
[ RR 9.h3, - Fritz 13. ]
9...Nd4!; (Pressure!) Black slams the Knight into the outpost-square, both Fritz and Houdini agree that this is best.
10.Rb1?!, (Probably - '?')
I don't know what White thought that he was doing in this position, however, this is just too slow.
So many have focused in on other moves, this appears to be the real culprit behind White's misery, Salwe's position
[
It looks like White had to play BxN/d4 here:
10...h5!?; (Interesting.) Rubinstein - perhaps sensing his opponent's distress in this particular position - begins to probe White's K-side.
[
Fritz 13 gives the following line of analysis here:
Now White, in order to ease the pressure on his center and K-side, must swap on d4. 11.Bxd4!, (Best/forced.) All the engines agree that White had to play this move. Now one might think that Salwe was going to try and make a game of it, he seems to be back on the right track.
[
11.Na2 Bxf3;
12.gxf3 Qh3; "-+"
(Black is winning here.)
11...Bxd4; (Total dominance.) Black has the much better game here, no matter what you might think ... or what the engines say.
r3k2r/pppq1pp1/3p1n2/4p2p/2BbP1b1/P1NP1N2/1PP2PPP/1R1Q1R1K w kq - 0 12
Black can improve his position with moves like ...c7-c6; and then castle on the Queenside. Then Black has the idea of trying to open the h-file with ...P/h5-h4-h3.
12.Ne2?, (Ugly!) White already had a difficult game, and Salwe was probably a good enough player to readily grasp this.
Most lower-rated players ... or players who have never played a single tournament game ... The net result of White's Ne2? is that his Bishop-Pawns get doubled on the King-side, and his position is much degraded as the overall result.
[ Fritz 13 offers two possible improvements for White:
Rubinstein - of course - does not hesitate to double Salwe's Pawns near his King. 12...Bxf3; ('!') 13.gxf3 Qh3;
The engines already show that Black has the much better game.
r3k2r/ppp2pp1/3p1n2/4p2p/2BbP3/P2P1P1q/1PP1NP1P/1R1Q1R1K w kq - 0 14
Study this position carefully. After just a few minutes of careful reflection, it becomes obvious that White is in a lot of hot water here. 14.Nxd4?, (Ooops!!!) White was expecting Black to (automatically) recapture on d4, when then he will have time to defend by playing the simple play of R/f1-g1.
r3k2r/ppp2pp1/3p1n2/4p2p/2BNP3/P2P1P1q/1PP2P1P/1R1Q1R1K b kq - 0 14
This position was the POTD on Tuesday; February 18th, 2014. I should remark that I have seen many players make this type of mistake. You become so fully conditioned to your opponent's recapture during an exchange, that you will not stop and look for an "in-between move." (A Zwischenzug.)
[
White had to play: >/= 14.Ng1[], but after Black plays:
14...Qh4; "/+"
Now Rubinstein plays an utterly brilliant and unexpected shot. 14...Ng4!!; White resigns. (0-1) (After f3xg4, Black opens the h-file, and mate is not far off.)
r3k2r/ppp2pp1/3p4/4p2p/2BNP1n1/P2P1P1q/1PP2P1P/1R1Q1R1K w kq - 0 15
A very nice miniature by the great Akiba Rubinstein.
[
The mighty Fritz shows that White can delay mate, however, he cannot prevent it.
0 - 1
Copyright (c) A.J. Goldsby, 2014. All rights reserved. If you enjoyed this miniature, please see all my pages on "shorties" ... (games that were played and lasted 25 moves, or less). [Short games, Volume I.] [Short games, Volume II.] [Short games, Volume III.] [Short games, Volume IV.] Other great games - some that I have annotated - all played by Akiba Rubinstein:
The
analysis for this page was prepared with the excellent program,
ChessBase
10.0. The HTML was polished with several different tools and programs, (mostly FP) ... the text was checked for spelling with MS Word..
|