Ideas now accepted as commonplace by club players were still to be worked out when many of the classic giants of chess were at the board.
Often these ideas are seen in simpler form than they now have, after many more decades of praxis.
Such games can be especially entertaining when featuring two world champions, in the following case Wilhelm Steinitz and his successor Emanuel Lasker.
Notes in italics are by Savielly Tartakower and Julius du Mont, algebraicised from 500 Master Games Of Chess.
Notes in bold italics are my translation from German of those by grandmaster Rainer Knaak in ChessBase's 2024 Mega database.
Steinitz - Lasker
London 1899
Vienna Gambit
A striking feature of the following fine game is Black's "double-sacrifice," followed by a quiet move, the logical result of ultra-rapid and concentric development.
London 1899 is remembered as one of the great tournaments, because almost all of the world's best were there (only Tarrasch was missing).1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 d5 4.d3!?
Adopting his favourite continuation - tricky, but slow.
Today only 4.fxe5 is played.
The earliest game in Mega24 to reach the position after 3...d5 saw Carl von Jaenisch unsuccessfully, in 1851, play 4.exd5 against Howard Staunton, and 4.exd5 is a favourite of Hikaru Nakamura (Rainer's annotations appear to have been written in 2000).
 |
| How should Black respond? |
*****
*****
*****
*****
4...Nc6
4...Nc6
The safest way to equalise is 4...exf4.
Three years earlier Lasker and Harry Pillsbury played 4...d4 in a consultation win against Steinitz and Mikhail Chigorin. But in 1909, when Lasker next reached the position, with black against Rudolf Spielmann, he preferred 4...exf4, albeit only drawing. For what it is worth, Stockfish16 and Komodo14.1 reckon the text is inferior to the other two moves.
5.fxe5 Nxe5 6.d4 Ng6
Remaining on the critical wing.
7.exd5
Only with 7.e5 can White hope for an advantage.
7...Nxd5 8.Nxd5
White hopes the black queen will not be so good on d5.
8...Qxd5
The black queen occupies a powerful square, whence it cannot very well be driven away (9.c4 would weaken White's position).
9.Nf3 Bg4 10.Be2 0-0-0 11.c3
This may lose time. White should castle.
11...Bd6
Already Black's forces have obtained a development.
12.0-0 Rhe8
Premature would be 12...Qh5 13.h3 Bxh3 13.Ng5 etc. The text move contains no direct threats, but it can eventually be followed by 13...f6 and 14...Nh5 etc.
 |
| How would you assess the coming middlegame? |
*****
*****
*****
*****
*****
White has the only pawn on the two centre files, but Black has a large lead in development and the safer-looking king. The engines give Black at least a slight edge.
White has the only pawn on the two centre files, but Black has a large lead in development and the safer-looking king. The engines give Black at least a slight edge.
13.h3
Less impulsive would be 13.Bd2.
The engines prefer Steinitz's choice.
13...Bd7 14.Ng5?!
Here again 14.Bd2 is indicated.
Steinitz dreams of driving away the queen on d5 with Bf3, but this should happen with 14.c4, although it is difficult to judge whether White can then defend all his weaknesses.
14...Nh4
Naturally not 14...f6 15.Bf3 Qg8 16.Ne4 with good play for White.
The engines reckon Black would still have a slight edge after 16...Bf8!?
15.Nf3
The lesser evil is 15.Bf3.
It looks like White's knight manoeuvre was completely pointless. But if Black were to play 15...Nf5, 16.Ng5 would come and White would be ready to play Bf3 again. Giving up the bishop-pair with 15.Bf3 may not have been in White's interest, but nevertheless was necessary.
The engines are not so sure, reckoning that after 15.Bf3 Nxf3+ 16.Qxf3 Qxf3 17.Nxf3 Black gets a positionally won game with 17...Bb5 18.Re1 Rxe1+ 19.Nxe1 Re8.
 |
| What should Black play? |
*****
*****
*****
*****
15...Nxg2!
15...Nxg2!
A "break-up sacrifice," of which the chief beauty lies in the fact that it requires a complementary sacrifice on the next move.
White has some defensive resources at hand, but the sacrifice still works.
16.Kxg2 Bxh3+
Taking the last defence by storm.
Even stronger, according to the engines, is 16...Re6, building up Black's attacking strength eg 17.Bd3 Rf6 18.Bg5!? Rxf3! 19.Rxf3 Qxg5+ 20.Kf1 Bg3 etc.
17.Kf2
Accepting the second sacrifice loses by force: 17.Kxh3 Qf5+ 18.Kg2 Qg4+ 19.Kh1 Qh3+ 20.Kg1 Qg3+ 21.Kh1 Re4 22.Bg5 Rg4 23.Rf2 Qxf2 24.Qf1 Qg3 etc.
17...f6!?
Whereas after 17...Bxf1 18.Bxf1 etc White could still offer a stubborn resistance. The text move brings into play Black's additional trump: an assault by pawns.
18.Rg1?
Better is 18.Rh1.
18...g5
Steinitz now defends against the difficult-to-stop advance of the g pawn by returning the piece.
19.Bxg5!?
The engines prefer 19.Bd2, but reckon Black is still winning.
19...fxg5 20.Rxg5
Numerically the games are even, but dynamically Black's forces, including the "two bishops," are overwhelming.
In addition to the miserable king's position, White has another handicap: the queen's rook is not developed.
20...Qe6 21.Qd3 Bf4 22.Rh1!?
If the threatened rook moves, Be3+ follows and the queen's rook is cut off.
22...Bxg5 23.Nxg5 Qf6+ 24.Bf3
Or 24.Nf3 Bg4, eg 25.Rg1 h5 26.Rg3 Rf8 27.Kg2 Rde8 28.Bd1 Qf4, threatening both ...h4 and ...Re3.
24...Bf5 25.Nxh7!? Qg6 26.Qb5 c6 27.Qa5 Re7 28.Rh5
There is nothing better, eg 28.Qxa7 Rxh7 29.Qa8+ Kc7 30.Qa5+ Kd7 etc.
28...Bg4 29.Rg5 Qc2+ 30.Kg3 Bxf3 0-1
Lasker won the first brilliancy prize for this game.
No comments:
Post a Comment