Wednesday 16 October 2019

Six Surprising Chess Facts About Bobby Fischer (part two)

1. He had a 50% score against Damiano's Defence
2. He played the Morra Gambit
Here is this relatively little-known game.
Fischer - Viktor Korchnoi
Buenos Aires 1960
Morra Gambit
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 a6 3.d4 cxd4 4.c3 dxc3 5.Nxc3 Nc6 6.Bc4 d6 7.0-0 Nf6
One of many popular tabiyas in the Morra
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8.Bg5!?
Morra specialist IM Marc Esserman recommends 8.Bf4 in Mayhem In The Morra! (Quality Chess, 2012) while also covering 8.Be3 and 8.b4. In ChessBase's 2019 Mega database the commonest move is 8.Qe2, a standard Morra idea.
8...e6 9.Qe2 Be7 10.Rfd1 Qc7 11.Rac1 0-0
Karel Tille - Lubomir Kavalek, Czechoslovak championship semi-final 1958, saw 11...Qb8 with a fairly uneventful draw in 21 moves.
12.Bb3 h6 13.Bf4 e5 14.Be3 Qd8 15.Nd5 Nxd5 16.Bxd5 Bd7 17.Nd2 Nb4 18.Bb3
White has compensation for his pawn in the shape of queenside pressure and in the fact that Black's extra pawn is backward on a semi-open file. Korchnoi decides to exchange off his bad bishop.
18...Bg5 19.Bxg5 Qxg5
A double-edged alternative was 19...hxg5!?
20.Nf3 Bg4 21.Rc7
Not 21.Rxd6?? Qxc1+.
21...Qd8 22.Rxb7
Another way to get the pawn back was 22.Rxf7!? Rxf7 23.Bxf7+, and if 23...Kxf7 then 24.Qc4+ with an edge.
22...Rb8 23.Rxb8 Qxb8 24.h3 Bxf3 25.Qxf3 Nc6 26.Qd3 Nd4
Black's unchallengeable knight lets him hold the balance despite his weak d and a pawns.
27.Bc4 a5 28.b3 Qb4 29.f4 Kh7 ½–½
Stockfish10 reckons White is better in the final position, but Komodo10's verdict of equality looks closer to the mark.

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